Let's talk about Artificial Intelligence

[old man emu]

Are we afraid that someone has let AI out of the bottle and it will turn into something like the water-bearing brooms of the Sorcerer's Apprentice? Are we afraid that AI will self-replicate and eventually create bodies for itself and we will be under attack from Dalek-like machines?

[rgmwa]

I think that would be the least threatening possibility. It's what it might do when it's turned loose deliberately or accidetally on the interconnected systems and devices that we all use these days that would be the bigger threat. Banks and other financial institutions, public facilities like hospitals, power stations and distribution networks, the military etc., and especially if nobody knows that it's there or what it's doing.

Edited 2 hours ago by rgmwa

[Marty_d]

There was some discussion on RN's Future Tense about it today.

One presenter made the point that pre-AI, hackers needed a fair amount of knowledge to do damage, and still do it at human speed.

Soon there will be the ability for anyone to buy off the shelf AI hacking tools, which will work thousands of times faster, with no knowledge whatsoever.