Technology and science in general is a neutral tool, for every worthwhile and beneficial use, there is a way to use the same tool/science for destructive ends. For example, the idea that we can potentially harness nuclear power (to keep my arguement unmuddied, I will use fusion as the exmaple rather than fission, even though we aren't quite there) that could provide clean and efficient energy generation is counterbalanced by the fact that we can make some pretty efficient fusion bombs. For every hammer used for construction, there will be someone who will decide it would make a better tool for caving in heads.

However, there is no technology (except maybe genetic engineering), that invokes more fear than the concept of Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps it is the fact that previous tools couldn't evolve and learn own their own accord (in which case, we should be scared of all children!) or perhaps the problem is that the intelligence hews too close to an intellectual equivalent of the "Uncanny "Valley"?

For this week, I would like to see what people think about the development of Artificial Intelligence and if this is a good thing or possibly a thing that should be banned.

My Thoughts

Unsplash

If I were to be completely rational, I would have to say, I think that the development of (limited) Artificial Intelligence would be a great thing for humankind in general. The idea that computers could learn and evolve with their environment would be a good thing for the general efficiency and applicability of computing and robotics.

However, if I would have to be truthful, it does bother me. The initial learning of our current neural networks rely heavily on the training data set that they are exposed to. This means that the bias of the researcher (or the historical bias of the data set) that compiled the data set could affect the intial training of the network. Now, for trivial cases, this is not a proble, (eg, is this a cat?). However, for more complex tasks and concepts (where AI would prove to be the most useful), this will prove to be a pretty significant hurdle to overcome.

So, my answer is a bit of a fence-sitter. I think that the development of AI is a potentially great step forward of humankind, however I am terribly scared of the outcomes. On the other hand, on balance, I think we have managed in the past to harnass the beneficial aspects of physics and biology whilst containing the destructive sides (mostly). So, I guess I would have to say that I would trust the scientific development of AI and that I think it is in good hands. There will be mistakes and disasters, but I think that on the whole, it will be like any other technology, completely neutral, but ultimately beneficial.

Rules

1. Upvote if you want, it increases the payout and then I can hopefully sponsor more people.
2. Resteem is NOT neccessary, but the more people see this, the more the people will be likely to be sponsored.
3. In the comments, tell me about your thoughts on Artificial Intelligence.
4. I will be sponsoring as many people as this post pays out in liquid SBD/STEEM. Also I will kick in at least the required amount to round up to the full number. Winner is by random generator after a shortlisting of quality comments!

Steem Basic Income

One of the first communities that I came in contact with at the beginning of my time at Steemit was @steembasicincome. As a beginning author, Steemit can be a daunting place. It feels like you are posting into an abyss with no ability to grow. Steem Basic Income gives you a guaranteed vote on one post a day, thus giving you a small but cumulative over time support to your account.

With this post, I want to help sponsor people who might not even have the spare 1 STEEM that is required for registration. So, when this post pays out, I will sponsor people depending on the payout of this post. Basically, I will round up the SBD payout from this post and then that will be the number of people I will sponsor. (So, if the payout is 2.3 SBD, I will sponsor 3 people).

Last week's winners

Last week paid out 0.262 SBD and 0.426 STEEM, however I will make it 2 shares.

Congratulations to:

@viking-ventures

@lifeobserver