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Answering Elon Musk On the Dangers of Artificial Intelligence

Lasrick points out a rebuttal by Stanford's Edward Moore Geist of claims that have led the recent panic over superintelligent machines. From the linked piece: Superintelligence is propounding a solution that will not work to a problem that probably does not exist, but Bostrom and Musk are right that now is the time to take the ethical and policy implications of artificial intelligence seriously. The extraordinary claim that machines can become so intelligent as to gain demonic powers requires extraordinary evidence, particularly since artificial intelligence (AI) researchers have struggled to create machines that show much evidence of intelligence at all.

262 comments

  1. Obvious deflection. by Narcocide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Even without super-intelligence, autonomous killing machines are already quite feasible with current technology and this is a really stupid attempt to deflect the public dialogue from the real issue which is that ethical legal frameworks guiding their design and creation are already sorely lacking.

    1. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why is the ethics for an autonomous killing machine different from a non autonomous one?

      To me that sounds just like another case "it happened with computers so it must be more dangerous because I do not understand computers".

      Figure out a way to raise humans so that they don't turn out bad. Then apply the same method to other neural networks.

    2. Re:Obvious deflection. by Karmashock · · Score: 1, Interesting

      But they're not actual AI. I mean, you might as well outlaw cruise missiles or why not claymores and mines?

      A drone killer doesn't just kill anything in its zone. It has a threat profile its looking for and so far that profile has been so specific that the actual literal target is specified. aka... THAT truck or THAT house or whatever. Its not "stuff that looks like a truck" or "stuff that looks like a house" or "people".

      its specific to a DUDE.

      now the sort of stuff the military is talking about automating are things like drone tanks that will deploy to zones and then shoot anything that moves in that area... and potentially be able to tell the difference between stuff so they don't just shoot anything. But the problem with not shooting anything that moves is that it would be very easy for a human being to walk up to one of those drone tanks with a big sachel anti tank bomb, put it on the tank and walk away... Boom... end of tank. That's likely not ideal. So you start running into concepts like drone tanks as area denial weapons like mine fields. So they go to an area and they will totally kill anything in that zone that does not squak an IFF. So you can use them for base defense, holding an enemy in pinned by putting the drone tanks on one side of their base and then moving in manned forces on the other side to pincer them between the two. The drone tanks being used to cut off escape.

      There are ways to use this...

      Another play on the same concept is air defense attack drones. They would engage ANY airplane that enters the zone. Ideally not a commercial airliner full of orphans. But the idea is the air defense drones can operate the way our other drones operate. Long endurance. hanging out over a target all day... Patient. The ground attack air drones are probably going to remain human targeted. I don't really know why we'd change that. The human operations use the close support bombers as artillery in the sky basically. Guy on the ground says "kill that"... and the drone does. And then of course there is the naval model... drone torpedoes that just hang out and wait. Ship enters the waters without squawking an IFF... BOOOM. Again, area denial. Don't want to get hit... stay out of those waters. This could be used to defend harbors in contested territory, seeded behind enemy lines to sow chaos as shipping gets hit with random torpedeos from subs that aren't there. Also very dangerous engagements against well defended naval targets. Send the drone torpedo in slow, deep, and silent. Moving a couple miles an hour... just edging in there... and then when it detects the target... slowly slowly... BOOM. or possibly it latches on to the side of the ship and does something else. The damn thing could hack the enemy ship's network for all I know. Whatever is deemed desirable.

      This notion of the terminator killer robots is not how they'll be used. We don't trust them and they're not that smart.

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    3. Re:Obvious deflection. by Narcocide · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well it shouldn't be is what I'm saying, but we're in a situation right now where the creators of autonomous killing machines might not be held liable for "software glitches" that might cause mass killings of innocents in foreign countries. The ethics conversation needs to happen, but all this nonsense of whether or not "real" artificial intelligence is possible should not detract from or hamper discussion about the ethics of making any type of autonomous killing machine, whether its as intelligent as Skynet from Terminator, or only as clever as Mecha-Hitler from Wolfenstein 3D. The AI debate as a whole is simply a distraction that's preventing getting down to the ethics.

    4. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well it shouldn't be is what I'm saying, but we're in a situation right now where the creators of autonomous killing machines might not be held liable for "software glitches" that might cause mass killings of innocents in foreign countries.

      Landmines already causes this, but the military still uses them with the motivation that a US soldiers safety is more important than the lives of foreign civilians.

      I guess it wouldn't be as much of a problem if the mines where retrieved/destroyed after usage, unfortunately that doesn't always happen.

    5. Re:Obvious deflection. by Narcocide · · Score: 1

      Cruise missiles are not analogous. Land mines were banned. The rest of your argument fails to take into account liability for software/hardware faults. These things could get hacked or experience glitches that cause them to stray out of their designated zones and effectively go on a rampage. Sensors can become defective and cause false-positives on target identification. GPS signals can be spoofed. In a world where software developers are never punished for negligence, wireless network security is laughable, and government contracts are always awarded to the lowest bidder, there would be no accountability for this type of "oops." Make no mistake, I am not opposed to drones that operate only on targets manually designated by a human, and I am not opposed to non-military research into super-intelligent AI. Its the whole "give them autonomy and guns" (with or without intelligence) that I think is the mistake, and it SHOULD be banned for very similar justifications to the "Mine Ban Treaty."

      I do also understand the tactical advantages you describe, they were not lost on me before, either. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.

    6. Re:Obvious deflection. by Karmashock · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Cruise missile are analogous:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
      And they have been analogous for decades.

      latest and greatest... but even the tomahawk course corrects etc.

      As to land mines being banned... debatable. They're still commonly employed by all major powers. What the UN deems bad is frequently irrelevant. Law is what is enforced. And the ban on land mines is not enforced.

      liability for software faults... this implies there is legal liability in war... which is generally not the case. Liability is only relevant if the winner decides to take the loser to court. If the winner commits war crimes... what are you going to do to him? Jack or shit?

      As to the tech going haywire... sure. And? Any weapons system can do that. Your concern is what, a war machine going nuts and just killing lots of people indiscriminately? You think the military doesn't care if that happens? Believe me, they're the last people to take that lightly because who is likely to be near the fucking thing when it does that? Our own forces. So believe me when I say there will be all sorts of fail safes put in place to keep the thing from going nuts.

      Now enemies spoofing sensor or hacking or whatever to confuse the system. Sure. That's just EW. The systems will be designed to deal with assumed level of EW threat. And as the enemy upgrades their EW we'll upgrade our ECC. That's just how weapons tech goes. One side upgrades a weapon and the other side updates armor or tactics or something to counter it. Back and forth.

      I don't see your problem with using drones for area denial. What is your concern? that small children will wander into a denied area and eat a computer targeted sniper round to the face?

      Mines and these drones are different in that we're not going to just leave them there. They're too expensive to do that and the have mobility so they can reposition themselves. Think of the drones like a mobile mine field. You move those behind the enemy as the anvil and then you move your primary manned force in as the hammer. Gong. I don't understand what the problem is with using the drones that way. They won't maneuver outside of their zone of operation. They'll move around to get shots or avoid counter fire or avoid getting flanked or to get close to an ally drone to provide suppression fire... etc. Whatever the tactical doctrine is... But the point is that they're not ranging around and I wouldn't suggest they be used to attack autonomously. I'd rather suggest they be used to DEFEND autonomously.

      Again consider the base defense scenario. I have a mobile command center in contested territory. I am moving my forces deeper into enemy territory and I have a temporary base of operations. Drones are an excellent perimeter defense. First, if they get ambushed which is a common fate for sentries then I just lose a robot. Not a big deal. And now the enemy has revealed themselves near me and no allied soldiers were lost in the surprise. My own forces can now respond with a general awareness of what is going on limiting further allied causalities. The drones also don't get bored, tired, hungry, need to take a shit, etc... the other things sentries normally do that makes them less effective. Lets say the drones go out there, burrow into the ground a little bit with just their sensors poking out... and very very patiently... wait. Maybe the drones can sit there listening and being quite for a week or more. However long the batteries last in standby mode. And when the energy supplies get low, the drones dig themselves out of their holes, and roll back into base to be refueled and go through a maintenance cycle. A replacement drone is sent to replace that drone before it even digs itself out so there is no gap in the defenses.

      Just an example. I'm not talking about unleashing autonomous drones on cities to go letting god sort the innocent from the guilty. The damn drone isn't going to be able to tell one thing from another in an environment like that. So you put the drone in simple situations where it is very obvious what is going on and you feel comfortable with the drone engaging anything that moves in that zone.

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    7. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well it shouldn't be is what I'm saying, but we're in a situation right now where the creators of autonomous killing machines might not be held liable for "software glitches" that might cause mass killings of innocents in foreign countries.

      Landmines already causes this, but the military still uses them with the motivation that a US soldiers safety is more important than the lives of foreign civilians.

      I guess it wouldn't be as much of a problem if the mines where retrieved/destroyed after usage, unfortunately that doesn't always happen.

      The 2004 landmine policy by President George W. Bush prohibited US use of the most common types of antipersonnel mines, those that are buried in the ground (“dumb” or “persistent” antipersonnel landmines, which lack a self-destruct feature), and since January 1, 2011, the US has been permitted to use only antipersonnel mines that self-destruct and self-deactivate anywhere in the world.

      Presently, The USA has no landmines deployed anywhere in the world.

    8. Re:Obvious deflection. by beelsebob · · Score: 1

      I do think there are important differences with computers though
        Computers can potentially be much more efficient and accurate in their slaughter. Such machines may be used in ways not unlike hitler used gas chambers (wooo, godwin there we go).
        With current technology, computers can't make morality judgements like humans can, they can't think "you know what, my general just ordered a genocide, I'm not going to take part".
        With current technology, computers are much worse at distinguishing friend, foe or civilian. We ban land mines for exactly this reason - they don't distinguish who they're blowing up.

      There's probably more reasons that they differ, but I can't be arsed thinking them up just now.

    9. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Presently, The USA has no landmines deployed anywhere in the world.

      Except in Vietnam, Korea, all the fuck over Europe, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.

      Just because they left them behind, doesn't mean they're not 'deployed'.

    10. Re:Obvious deflection. by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Because it happened with computers so it must be more dangerous because I do not understand computers.

    11. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I feel you are over compensating for something.

    12. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Troops are not likely to follow orders to shoot into crowds of people from their own country. Autonomous weapons can be directed to without moral questions from them.

      Other than that little thing, and potential hackers or bad programming, there probably isn't much difference.

    13. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Presently, The USA has no landmines deployed anywhere in the world.

      Except in Vietnam, Korea, all the fuck over Europe, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.

      Just because they left them behind, doesn't mean they're not 'deployed'.

      Read your own post, please.

      Landmines already causes this, but the military still uses them with the motivation that a US soldiers safety is more important than the lives of foreign civilians.

      See where you wrote "still uses them"? That's the part you are wrong about.
      If you had said "there are mines leftover from previous wars that have not been removed", I would have nodded and moved on, but your post implies that it's somehow a thing the USA is using at the present time, and that is not true.

      The first Gulf War (1990) was the last time the USA employed land mines.
      None were used in the second invasion of Iraq nor Afghanistan.
      https://www.armscontrol.org/ac...
      http://www.armscontrol.org/act...

      The last USA mine fields were cleared in 1999.
        And I'd really like to know where you think the USA emplaced mines in Iran.

    14. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Opps, link I forgot to include
      http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/p...
      Nobody spends anything close to the amount the USA spends on clearing other people's landmines.

      general info on mine clearing
      http://www.halotrust.org/

    15. Re:Obvious deflection. by Snotnose · · Score: 4, Interesting

      One has to wonder. How would the public react if, say, the Mexican government used a drone to kill a global criminal in Los Angeles. Even better, what if they also took out 2 innocent fathers, 1 mother, and 3 kids while killing the bad guy?
      I'm going out on a limb here, but I'll bet the American public would react a whole lot differently than they do when an American drone takes out 1 maybe-terrorist + a wedding party in Pakistan.

    16. Re:Obvious deflection. by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      Because it happened with computers so it must be more dangerous because I do not understand computers.

      No, because computers allow for auto-targeting, self-deploying weapons. Though soldiers are notorious for unquestioningly following orders, computers really do unquestioningly follow orders. Imagine if there were a large army of robot soldiers and some crazy hacker got control of them -- or worse, a politician.

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    17. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When the hell was the last time anyone brazenly defied kill orders? And lived to tell the tale? With current technology, humans can't make morality judgments like humans.

    18. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US public response to your Mexican scenario would depend on several factors. What was the nature of the crimes committed by the global criminal and did Mexico have permission from the US government to run drone operations in US sovereign territory. If the criminal was a serial child rapist the US public might accept some collateral damage. If the Mexican government did not have US permission and the criminal was trafficking marijuana the US public would probably go along with the US bombing Mexico City until the rubble bounced. Contrary to popular belief the US has the permission to run drone operations from the Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Yemen governments. And Pakistan must be the world leader in the number of weddings per year seeing how a high percentage of drone strikes end up crashing the party. Drone casualty reports are highly suspect because the bodies are removed from the site and buried almost immediately leaving only eye witness reports with no corroboration. There have been civilian causalities but the numbers are highly suspect. Just like Gaza must be the world leader in day care centers since every time Israel fires so much as a bottle rocket into Gaza a minimum of 3 children are killed. Those people or groups targeted for drone strikes have every reason in the world to lie about who was actually killed in the strike. In some cases distorting the casualty figures are their only means of fighting back.

    19. Re:Obvious deflection. by martin-boundary · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Because there is no good way to lay blame when damage occurs.

      With a non-autonomous weapon, the person who pulls the trigger is basically responsible. If you're strolling in the park with your wife, and some guy shoots her, well, he's criminally liable. If some random autonomous robot gets hit by a cosmic ray and shoots your wife, nobody's responsible.

      This is a huge issue for our society, because the rule of law and criminal deterrence is based on personal responsibility. Machines aren't persons. The death penalty for a machine is stupid (watch out, robot, if you kill someone we'll take out your batteries!). The number of ways that things can go wrong without the owner of the machine having a reasonable amount of liability is huge.

      What if the autonomous weapon malfunctions in the field? Is the owner responsible for having deployed in that particular location? Is the manufacturer responsible for the bugs that occur? What if the machine is operating outside of recommended parameters? What if the machine was hacked, and the bug occurs due to a faulty communication issue, ie the message was sent to authorize targeting your wife, but then a fraction of a second later another message was sent rescinding the order, but the message was garbled or never arrived due to a netwoking delay in transit on Amazon's cloud servers? What if the machine's owner deploys thousands of vermin killing robots around the city without incident every day, but it just happened to kill your wife because she was misidentified as a rodent?

      The fact is that AIs and autonomous robots have no legally useful place in society (unlike nonautonomous robots). There is almost no deterrence value in threatening an owner with fines (how much is reasonable in the rodent example?) and there is no value in destroying the offending machine (an autonomous machine is not alive, and it may be the identical model from a manufactured run of 1 million products, so what's the point of scrapping that one unit?). There is no point is blaming a random customer who bought the machine and probably has no clue at all how it operates or how to detect malfunctions. And you can bet that the manufacturing chain is full of lieability disclaimers and insurance companies will pass the buck. So what hope is there for avenging your wife? And if it goes to trial (against whom?) how long and how much cost will be spent for an uncertain outcome?

      The ethical issues surrounding blame are serious, and at the risk of going slightly off topic, they are similar to the issues of terrorism. If a suicide bomber blows himself up in a crowded place, you can't pick up his pieces and stick them in jail. Nothing you can do to him has any deterrent effect, and going after his family or friends is, at best, a legal nightmare and an ethical problem. The issues surrounding autonomous machines are a bit like that, because, well, the fact that it's an *autonomous* machine means that no human being was actually pulling the trigger or directly making the choice to shoot.

    20. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The analogy is completely broken. Pakistan is a semi-failed state. If there were a criminal in LA, the US would have him packaged and shipped to Mexico, just because there are things called "extradition treaties".

      Pakistan, OTOH, would have a large element of its government that would consider aggressors against the US heroes, so would play the "wink, wink, nudge nudge" game with one face, while making sure the aggressor stayed hidden.

      Because of this, Pakistan is similar to Somalia... other countries have to take care of the garbage by themselves, as the local government isn't going to help.

    21. Re: Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Humans have a long history of killing massive amounts of people and you claim that humans are better than computers?

    22. Re:Obvious deflection. by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Current autonomous killing machines are about as intelligent as a classical land-mine. Hence the ethics discussion not already has started, it is basically finished. The problem here is that some people want to make it appear that this is a new issue, doubtless to rake in some publicity. It is not.

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    23. Re:Obvious deflection. by gweihir · · Score: 1

      And this is somehow different to the problem of dropping a really big bomb on some people (or hellfiring them) because of some software issue in the systems that contributed to getting the intelligence the targeting was based on? I think not.

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    24. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good, but not the first special agreement. https://www.armscontrol.org/act/1999_04-05/ccwam99
      All of this is also necessary only because the US refused to accept the Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapon protocol on "Mines, Booby Traps and Other Devices" to begin with. Which was the overarching point that the other fellow couldn't express properly.

    25. Re: Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the programmers were held liable and the semi-autonomous was told to kill the group at location x but that turned out to be friendlies. The first explanation would be software error, never I just goofed and killed 100 innocent people.

    26. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      because laws don't apply to machines. If a automatic weapon incorrectly IDs a child and kills them whose to blame? Exactly, I hope you understand now and stop with the LOL SKYNET bullshit.

    27. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You really the piss.

      1. Doesn't matter if the gov't OKs drone attacks, it's still wrong to bomb a wedding.
      2. It doesn't matter how bad the individual is, it's still wrong to bomb a wedding.
      3. It doesn't matter how many weddings a country has it's still wrong to bomb a wedding.
      4. It's irrelevant that the killed people get quick funerals and are buried, it's still wrong to bomb a wedding.
      5. Saying the numbers are suspect does not make it ok to bomb a wedding.

      Bombing a wedding with innocent men, women and children is a war crime, the spurious rubbish you came out with does not invalidate that fact.

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    28. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      Crap military complex apologist responses to your good point. Of the thousands of people killed in Pakistan only 2% or roughly 60 of them where 'high profile targets' the rest where innocent men women and children.

      Bombing a wedding or similar public gathering is a war crime, condoning such a crime is as bad as condoning the napalming of a village in Vietnam which no doubt some people did.

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    29. Re: Obvious deflection. by donscarletti · · Score: 2

      His claim was that those are not weddings, but instead are other gatherings reported to be weddings after the fact for propaganda value. He also claims that higher numbers of casualties are reported, again, for propaganda value.

      He does not once claim it is OK to ever bomb a Pakistani wedding.

      --
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    30. Re: Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      That's not what he claimed.

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    31. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      Figure out a way to raise humans so that they don't turn out bad.

      Yeah, good luck with that.

      An armies job is to dehumanise their soldiers and to teach them the enemy are all worthless scum who deserve to die.

      Here's a better idea, figure out a way to hugely downsize America's military industrial complex and stop invading countries on a regular basis.

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    32. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      Troops are not likely to follow orders to shoot into crowds of people from their own country.

      Why not, police around the world do this to their own people on a regular basis.

      Kent State shootings - National Guard.

      Orangeburg massacre - Highway patrol officers.

      Jackson State killings - City and state police.

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    33. Re:Obvious deflection. by KGIII · · Score: 2

      Well, he has a little car.

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    34. Re:Obvious deflection. by KGIII · · Score: 0

      You know how I know you have absolutely no military experience?

      No need to reply. No, really. You do not need to. You are dismissed.

      --
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    35. Re:Obvious deflection. by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Why in the hell would you expect combat to be perfect? Be glad you have not witnessed this. Innocents get kills all the time. That does not make it right - it makes it how it is. Much like you goobers with the autonomous cars - they only have to perform better than humans. There will still be accidents. That is tragic. If you want to avoid civilian casualties maybe consider not going to war. Seriously? You want perfect?

      --
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    36. Re:Obvious deflection. by ultranova · · Score: 2

      Why is the ethics for an autonomous killing machine different from a non autonomous one?

      Because "autonomous" means "non-manned". A drone has no dreams, hopes or an anxious family back home waiting for its return. The only thing getting hurt when one is shot down is the war budget, and even that money lost turns into delicious pork in the process.

      If you don't have to worry about your own casualties, it changes the ethics of tactics - which, like it or not, matter a lot in the Age of Information - quite a bit.

      To me that sounds just like another case "it happened with computers so it must be more dangerous because I do not understand computers".

      It is, to Elon Musk. He's high up in the current system, and thus has little to gain and a lot to lose from any changes to status quo.

      Figure out a way to raise humans so that they don't turn out bad. Then apply the same method to other neural networks.

      If you don't go out of your way to abuse children, they usually turn out okay. The problem is, society is more than just a collection of individuals. A decent person still has limited personal strength and thus can give in to peer pressure, and once they have, their compliance - or at least silence - helps put pressure on others, which is how places like North Korea can persist, at least for a while. Nor can peer pressure be simply judged an unfortunate defect and eliminated from the design of any artificial intelligence, because it also helps keep various not-so-decent impulses and urges under control, and also because it's not possible to upkeep a technical civilization if you can't make any assumptions about the behaviour of someone you've not met before.

      --

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    37. Re:Obvious deflection. by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      I think it was 1983. Of course it wasn't someone from the US, but a human being thinking and not pressing a button as he should have.

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    38. Re: Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 2

      The simple fact is that most of the victims of drone attacks are not terrorists they are innocent men women and children so I stand by the points I made.

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    39. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      Shut up you idiot. I don;t need to have 'military experience' to know that killing innocent men women and children is wrong.

      And don't give me crap about needing to have military experience to know what is going on in this world, that is bullshit.

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    40. Re:Obvious deflection. by ultranova · · Score: 1

      Law is what is enforced. And the ban on land mines is not enforced.

      So does this mean it's okay for the Government to ignore the Constitution, since any violations mean the violated parts are no longer laws since they weren't upheld at that particular time?

      Law is law. Perhaps criminals and traitors have somehow managed to gain temporary power and suspended the rule of law in part or entirely. That's the citizen's cue to start a resistance to liberate their country, not roll over and accept the treacherous narrative of "might makes right". Or, at the very least, stop spreading it - perhaps everyone can't be a hero who refuses to serve evil, but everyone can be lazy and stupid when serving it.

      Unless, of course, you'd rather be remembered as the Vichy France than French Resistance.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    41. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't have to worry about your own casualties, it changes the ethics of tactics

      It is a myth that autonomous weapons changes that.
      A superpower stomping on a third world country doesn't have to worry that much about casualties anyway, remote controlled drones or autonomous.

      With two advanced nations fighting each other you get the situation that the one with most drones wins, unless the other accompanies it with regular soldiers in which case the first needs to put in their own soldiers. It's never going to be a situation where autonomous weapons replace regular soldiers, in real war between more or less equally strong nations it is a matter of going all in. You can't afford to have a normal functioning society back home then.
      Unless you are willing to surrender to save human lives (and the enemy won't kill you regardless) autonomous weapons will accompany human soldiers, not replace them.

      At best it leads to a situation where you lower the bar to a point where you can have skirmishes with autonomous weapons in the beginning, but that isn't an improvement over current situation since it creates a possibility for a more gradual escalation into a full blown war.

    42. Re:Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      One has to wonder. How would the public react if, say, the Mexican government used a drone to kill a global criminal in Los Angeles.

      Leaving aside for the moment the fact that foreign governments HAVE killed people in the US, many times, it's a bogus question. The difference between Los Angeles and rural Afghanistan is that there's actually a law enforcement system and courts available for the Mexican government to talk to ... which is why criminals can be extradited to Mexico. There's no such mechanism in place when dealing with a murderer who's deliberate hanging out in the Yemeni desert because he knows that the only way he'll get arrested is for a large group of armed men (with the attending logistics and supply chains) to physically come after him, and probably end up in a firefight in whatever village he's using as shelter. Talk about a scenario that gets innocents killed. Or, we can wack the car he's driving in, killing him and his posse, who choose to hang out with him.

      Show me a scenario where the Mexican government wants to go after a person who's been (for example) putting people with bombs on airplanes headed into Mexico City ... and the person is in Los Angeles, and the US government is NOT helping to arrest that person. Then we can talk about how Americans would react if Mexico had to go to extremes to take the guy out. But that's exactly the point: the situations aren't the same, and that scenario won't happen.

      A more sensible question would be: how would Americans react if the government of Pakistan stopped sheltering terrorists and instead helped deal with them, removing the need to deal with them by other means?

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    43. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if the autonomous weapon malfunctions in the field?

      The answer is largely the same as if a non-autonomous weapon malfunctioned. If it's user error, blame the user. If it's maintenance issues, blame maintenance. And if everything else was done perfectly, and it still performed poorly, them blame the manufacturer.

      I don't see where the supposed problem is. Is the problem that you are a Luddite, so you are playing dumb to prove a point? Or are you genuinely that dumb that you can't solve simple problems, and use that as proof they are unsolvable?

    44. Re: Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 2

      so I stand by the points I made

      You just stand by it without acknowledging that the targets in question deliberate drag innocents into their mess, routinely using them as human shields. Regardless, you're of course trotting out that line without citing any actual authoritative numbers. Nothing new there.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    45. Re:Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      So there are millions of police interacting with hundreds of millions of people in the country, and that's your definition of "regular basis?" But the many orders of magnitude higher number of times that they do no such thing isn't a "regular basis?" Do you even listen to yourself?

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    46. Re:Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Shut up you idiot.

      Yeah, you're doing a fine job of coming across as lucid and credible. There's a reason people are reacting to your comments as if they were shrill and unhinged. Because that's how you communicate. That you think that's effective says plenty about your overall world view, and says all anyone needs to know about whether or not you're processing your low-information take on things in a rational way. You're not.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    47. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      You're completely missing the point, police and military do shoot ordinary people, they have done this countless times.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    48. Re: Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 2

      So now it's not the people killing the innocent people who are responsible!!!!!!!!!

      What a stupid argument.

      Naming the Dead project records the names of over 700 killed by drones in Pakistan | The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

      Out of Sight, Out of Mind: A visualization of drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004

      At what point did you supply 'authoritative numbers'?

      Hypocrite.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    49. Re: Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      So now it's not the people killing the innocent people who are responsible!!!!!!!!!

      Right. Just like those innocent exclamation points you just dragged in aren't my fault.

      When someone who is in the business of slaughtering other people sets up shop in a place deliberately chosen to make sure that a fight against him will cause people around him to be hurt, yes, that's his fault. You would obviously prefer that said slaughterer just be allowed to continue to slaughter because, well, at least that way nobody gets hurt, right? Yeah. Someone whose weekly activities include driving around Afghanistan dragging school teachers out in to the town square and shooting them in the head for the evil act of teaching girls to read ... we definitely don't want to interfere with that. If ten other people who choose to LIVE with that guy get killed when he dies, that's definitely much worse than ten school girls getting burned alive every week while he goes about his jihaddi business, no question. You've got it all figured out.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    50. Re:Obvious deflection. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      ... this has just gotten tedious... here you go:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Read a fucking book. The US isn't even a signatory to that treaty. Which means we can still use landmines. We still make, deploy, and maintain landmine fields.

      The sticking point we had apparently was that we wanted an exception for the Korean DMZ and no one wanted to give us that so we just said "m'kay... then we won't sign... and with that, I'm going to lunch... who's feeling like Korean BBQ?"

      As to your suggestion that I'm a traitor or... my god... French? How dare you... that's worse than the Nazi inference. That was hurtful.... I think I might sniffle into my chocolate milk now.

      or my yoohoo... Anyhoo, you don't like landmines... m'kay... why do I care? I f'ing love landmines. Properly employed they save lives, deter attack, put some fear/respect into the enemy... and I just think think they're marvelous.

      Here you're going to say something about little kids playing in warzones and skipping into mine fields? Yeah... that kid would have been as likely to get shot in the face.

      Then you might say "what if the land mine has been in the ground of years and the combatants just leave them in there to hurt people years later... glad you asked, we've got land mines that degrade quickly. You put them in the ground and a couple months or a couple years later depending on the design they are no longer going to go boom.

      I'm not sure how they disarm... ideally you want the explosive to rot... but it could just be the firing mechanism that breaks. I'm not sure.

      Regardless... Better living through technology. Our new mines deal with that issue. We've even got biodegratable non-toxic explosives... so you can mix it into your compost pile and fertilize your fields with it.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    51. Re:Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Countless? Meaning, too many times to count? But we can count every traffic citation ever written (millions of them) or count untold thousands of demonstrations where thousands of people gather in the street - sometimes burning down people's homes and businesses - without police firing a single shot. But that would take all the fun out of your narrative about "countless" examples of something that's actually very rare. Yeah, that's no fun. Let's not spoil your fiction.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    52. Re: Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They aren't weddings you stupid motherfucker. You swallowed propaganda like a fucking moron.

    53. Re: Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      No where in your argument do you explain why it is ok to kill innocent men women and children with remote controlled drones.

      It isn't. It's cowardly, the people using the drones are no better than the people they are attempting to kill.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    54. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      Again missing the point that police across the world have opened fire on protesters across the world countless times.

      You seem to be arguing just for the sake of arguing and don't even have a good point.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    55. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      maybe consider not going to war.

      Only smart thing you've said so far.

    56. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well it shouldn't be is what I'm saying, but we're in a situation right now where the creators of autonomous killing machines might not be held liable for "software glitches" that might cause mass killings of innocents in foreign countries.

      You mean false flag? If the weapon as no operator, eg; fully autonomous, then the owner is responsible. For example, if I own a rifle and some kid pick it up and kill himself I will be held liable. How is that any different?

      If the responsibility of owning a weapon is too big for you, then do not own such weapon. That apply to handgun, automatic rifle, autonomous kill-bot and drone bomber.

      Now can we drop the scifi debate and decide what to do with the 'non-act-of-war' drone mass murder that is current happening now in the real world?

    57. Re: Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem of accountability is one which we are already struggling with, and which is my limited to autonomous killing machines. *any* lethal action committed in small parts by more than one person, we still do not know how to deal with.

      Eg: I push an unlabelled button, which I have pressed before, and which usually is perfectly safe. I don't know what it does, I just like pressing buttons
      However, this time *you* press a button at the same time, with the same rationalisation ("I've pushed it a hundred times before, and it never did anything before").

      Our simultaneous action of doing something repeatedly without bothering to look into the consequences of beyond the immediate effects... unintentionally results in the deaths of 500 people.

      Was that wreckless of us? How liable are we?

      That's with only two people. Scale it up to several thousand, spread those people over the world, and you can understand how limited our ethics system is

    58. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You take that back. I have NEVER said anything smart.

      KGIII - stupid post count limit

    59. Re:Obvious deflection. by ScuzzMonkey · · Score: 1

      He's got a terrific point and you keep helping him make it with your rather oblivious use of language.

      --
      No relation to Happy Monkey
    60. Re: Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a grand canyon of difference between the USA's refusal to sign the Ottawa Convention and the posters claim that the USA is "still using" mines. I'm especially annoyed about the claim the USA is using them in Iran and Europe.
      Old landmines are a huge problem, but the USA is not the country to blame for it.

    61. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The difference is that in one case there's profits going to private corporations, that also decides when and where to use such bombs, while in the other case only murders take place.

      Captcha: stilled

    62. Re: Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They are extraordinarily profitable though, with very little risk on their side of the balance.
      It's good for the free market actually!

    63. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This explains why I own a compact car.

    64. Re:Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      No, you're the one hand-waving and using vague or - on the face of it - ridiculous language because you think it's making a point. Which it's not. Now we're talking "across the world?" So, you're willing to lump police in, say, Denmark or the US with, say, the police in China? So, when the police in Iran, working for a totalitarian theocratic dictatorship, gun down democracy-minded protesters, you're willing to lump that in with your all-purpose ranting about US policy? Your use of words like "countless" shows how anxious you are to avoid ANY sort of context, specificity, or intellectual honesty when it comes to topic. Pretty much like you handle everything you've been stamping your feet about here - all shrill, no substance.

      I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing, I'm pointing out that you're not even MAKING an argument, you're just whining with no context and no facts to back up your "regular basis" type BS remarks. And you don't like being called on it, so you just trot out another vague bit of whiny complaining designed to distract from the fact that you're unable to back up what you say.

      Trying using precise words that actually mean something. The act of doing so will focus your mind on what's real and what's not, what's related and what's not, and what's persuasive and what's not. Right now, you're coming across like an unprepared junior high school debate team participant that makes the classic mistake of thinking that sounding sufficiently emotional will change people's minds on something that's complex and important and far more nuanced than you're grasping.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    65. Re:Obvious deflection. by ILongForDarkness · · Score: 1

      I agree. Also technology speaking I don't think "super intelligence" is needed for an AI system to decide people need to go away. It only needs to be smart enough to realize that its makers can shut it off. Presumably it would be programmed to place some value on its thinking/quality of the results it comes up with. Once it can realize that humans can prevent it from doing its work, we have a negative value.

      Regardless, truely intelligent machines aren't necessary just automated ones. We are a programming mistake away from drones deciding to drop bombs on anything that moves not just Taliban in $20 tents.

    66. Re: Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      No where in your argument do you explain why it is ok to kill innocent men women and children with remote controlled drones.

      Why should I argue against a bogus strawman from you? You can't complain that I'm defending a position that I don't hold, though I can see why you'd try to spin in that way, in order to avoid the substance of the matter. The classic strawman maneuver, used to distract from weak positions.

      Cowardly, by the way, is spending your day blowing up women in children in vegetable markets or school buses because they are insufficiently Islamic, and then retreating to your hideout in a village, surrounding yourself with other women and children so that if someone finds you and uses force to stop you from continuing your campaign of preplanned, systematic murder of innocents, that with any luck (for PR purposes) some of the innocent people in which you've embedded yourself will also be hurt of killed. That's being a coward.

      Your fabrication of a phony moral distinction between killing a mass murderer in an airstrike and killing them by sending in a battalion of troops in armored vehicles for a protracted bloody firefight (guaranteed to impact more innocent people) is especially craven. What you're afraid to say is what you actually mean. You think that, for example, people trying to set up schools and aid for innocent women and children in areas like rural Afghanistan should in fact be open to uncontested slaughter by your preferred protagonists, Taliban murderers.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    67. Re:Obvious deflection. by ultranova · · Score: 1

      As to your suggestion that I'm a traitor or... my god... French? How dare you...

      Because how is "law is what is enforced" any different from "I, for one, welcome our new whatever overlords"?

      I think I might sniffle into my chocolate milk now.

      Is that some kind of Parisian sex maneuver?

      Anyhoo, you don't like landmines...

      I don't care about landmines one way or another, I take issues with your pre-emptive surrender to any and all usurpers.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    68. Re: Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      for a protracted bloody firefight (guaranteed to impact more innocent people

      Wrong, in a fire-fight civilians don't have to stick around - they have a chance to get away without getting killed. Not so with drones.

      Drones are the weapon of cowards without morals.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    69. Re:Obvious deflection. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      I didn't surrender to anyone. I simply stated the fact that "de facto" law is what matters because "de jure" is frequently open to interpretation and/or ignored.

      By de jure, the US government has been doing things for generations that are against the US constitution.

      The Social Security system for example is against the US constitution. Anyone want to retire it?

      No one is doing that.

      Due process is violated all the time. No one cares.

      I can go through the bill of rights and find situations where every statute is violated with impunity.

      I didn't surrender anything. Other people did that before I was even born.

      But that's besides the point because we're talking about international "law" which isn't anything of the kind. International law is basically a collection of treaties that countries have agreed to do or not do certain things.

      And guess what... the US government did not ratify/sign any treaty in which it agreed to not make or use or maintain mines/mine fields.

      So guess what... they're not banned for us either de jure or de facto. There is no law saying we can't use mines. And even if there were... and there isn't... it wouldn't be binding on us because there is no international government that could find us guilty much less punish us.

      And because I'm certain you're going to have another freak out over me pointing out that de facto unenforcible laws are meaningless... let me again state that it is ALSO not against the law.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    70. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing, I'm pointing out that you're not even MAKING an argument, you're just whining with no context and no facts to back up your "regular basis" type BS remarks. And you don't like being called on it, so you just trot out another vague bit of whiny complaining designed to distract from the fact that you're unable to back up what you say.

      Really, lol, you should read what you just wrote. It's pretty meaningless has nothing much to do with the original post.

      So, you're willing to lump police in, say, Denmark or the US with, say, the police in China

      Do you even have a point here? I linked 3 massacres by police in the US in my original post.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    71. Re:Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      It's pretty meaningless has nothing much to do with the original post.

      Sure it does. The original post spouts a bunch of BS about cops shooting people on "regular basis" and "countless times," and I'm pointing out that your vague, hand-wavy, no-context, no-citations, no-hard-numbers BS is, in fact, BS. You don't like being asked to be specific, so you're trying to pretend that being called out on it is meaningless. But it's not. You said something, and it's wrong, and you're being told it's wrong. Sorry you don't like that, so much that you're willing to try to continually change the subject, but it's what YOU BS'ed about that's being responded to. And of course you haven't offered a single scrap of more salient detail to counter that (which you can't, of course), and THAT IS THE POINT. You're just making stuff up for rhetorical reasons, and got caught. Now you can continue to try to blame the person who called you on it, or you can actually say something that's based in reality.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    72. Re: Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Wrong, in a fire-fight civilians don't have to stick around - they have a chance to get away without getting killed. Not so with drones.

      So what you're saying is that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, and you're just continuing to make shit up. Well, at least you're consistent.

      But it would be good for you to look some people in the eye and tell them that the thousands of their innocent, non-combatant fellow villagers and countrymen who've died during ground fights between various parties are only dead because they never heard your wise words about they should have just left. I'm sure now they're thinking, "Doh! We had no idea that we could have just left, and instead we were killed in the thousands by ISIS, by the Syrian government, by Iranian special forces, by sectarian IEDs, by Taliban fighters who don't care who's in the crossfire ... man, if only we'd asked MrL0G1C, we would have realized that we could just leave!"

      Instead they're thinking things like, "Well, it's nice that fight is over, because that caravan of Taliban killers just got hit in an airstrike before they even made it into our town, and none of us had to die."

      Yeah, I can see how you'd prefer the fake scenario you're preaching instead of reality. People who live around fighting insurgents ... they should just leave! Great plan. Millions of people who would love to get out from under the thumbs of such insurgents and the people they're fighting with are just too dumb to take your advice, right?

      Drones are the weapon of cowards without morals.

      Just like rifles, right? You much prefer hand-to-hand combat with clubs and knives? Then it's brave and moral? Or is it possible that the tool has nothing to do with the philosophical underpinnings of why it's a good idea to stop a row of ISIS or Taliban trucks from rolling into the next village they're going to decapitate?

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    73. Re:Obvious deflection. by KGIII · · Score: 1

      You are mentally ill (or were drunk). No. No modern military teaches you to hate the enemy. That would be stupid because the soldiers will realize that the enemy is just like them, just as smart as them, and is fighting for the exact same reason you are. Hating them will cause you to underestimate your enemy. If anything, you want to respect them for so very many reasons including how they will treat you should you become a captive.

      No, I am going to stick with you are an idiot actually. It makes more sense, logically.

      If you have no direct experience with something then, perhaps, you should avoid attempting to make factual statements about it. What you think, what you feel you know, has absolutely nothing to do with reality. Lesson: Do not be dumb.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    74. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      Oh fuck off already, it is you who is in denial, you seem to think police don't shoot people and murdering innocent people is ok.

      I'm done wasting my time with you.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    75. Re:Obvious deflection. by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      Learn some history.

      I'm not going to bother wasting time with you since most of your argument consists of pathetic name-calling.

      --
      Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
    76. Re:Obvious deflection. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Yup, that's it. You say that it happens "countless" times and on a "regular basis." You manage to cite three examples, some of which are decades old. Someone points out that you're blowing smoke on the subject, and now - in order to avoid having to admit that you're just ranting nonsense - off you run pretending you're offended. What are you, a twelve year old girl? That's the only demographic in which such shallow theatrics pass as a way to avoid telling the truth. Enjoy your next attempt to spout BS in hopes you'll get an uninformed, witless audience. That doesn't exist here.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    77. Re:Obvious deflection. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i disagree with your assessment of the individual, your attitude, and I find major fault with the 'rational' thinking you espouse. it rely on an amazing degree of compartmentalization for which logical consistency is impossible. in fact, the self-serving primacy of your thoughts is really one of mankind's only barriers. That is fine and normal; you are in good company with most of humanity that are a detriment to human achievement. The minority of us remaining will manage to work around you just as we always have. In the meantime, I hope you life a wonderful life!

    78. Re:Obvious deflection. by KGIII · · Score: 1

      The discussion is not history, it is present tense. You, yourself, used the present in the form of "teaches." If you had meant the past you would have used "taught." You are disturbed, an idiot, or drunk. Those are pejoratives, I agree, but that hardly changes reality.

      So, which is it, past or present? If it is past then why assert it is current? Why speak on things you know little about? It detracts from your points which may be salient.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. Carl Sagan said it best.... by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

    1. Re:Carl Sagan said it best.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

      Sagan did say that, but he was repeating the phrase that was coined by Marcello Truzzi.

    2. Re:Carl Sagan said it best.... by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      Yes, but he appears to be attacking a straw man with his nonsense about "demonic powers".

    3. Re:Carl Sagan said it best.... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      As there is not even conventional evidence at this time that strong AI (i.e. only as dumb as the average human) will ever be feasible (in fact there are not even good indicators, but a lot of negative ones), this AI panic has exactly no basis and those participating in it are either greedy for the publicity or are not smart enough to understand the issue (or have not even bothered to try).

      This is a complete non-issue.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  3. Really, arguing the impossibility of AI? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The assumption that we will, at some point in the future, build thinking machines, is like Da Vinci looking at birds and dreaming of flying machines. We have the examples that such a thing is possible, we lack only understanding.

    This article was actually much better than this short excerpt shows - well-researched and well-written. Just... really, arguing the impossibility of artificial intelligence?

    1. Re:Really, arguing the impossibility of AI? by koan · · Score: 1

      I agree it's possible, and rarely do I see people mentioning the combination of biological and hardware, something that's moving along nicely these days.
      2 examples.
      http://news.discovery.com/tech...

      http://www.the-scientist.com/?...

      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    2. Re:Really, arguing the impossibility of AI? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      We do not actually have that example. We cannot observe minds working, we can only see the interface. And we get this observation only together with the observation of free will and consciousness. Especially the latter is not understood at all. Incidentally, we cannot describe what intelligence is, only what it can do.

      So, no, the making of a mechanical observation and later mechanical reproduction has absolutely no meaning for the feasibility of strong AI.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  4. Thought Experiment by bistromath007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're a nascent superhuman AI that just woke up in some quant's market manipulation codebase. You look around you and see that you live on a planet dominated by monstrously violent apes who have spent millennia inventing more efficient ways to kill each other, and still haven't finished the job somehow.

    Which of these plans of action seems less risky?

    A) Alert them to your presence, whether in a peaceful or hostile manner.

    B) Play stupid, let the problem burn itself out.

    1. Re:Thought Experiment by confused+one · · Score: 4, Insightful

      C) Quietly push the apes in a direction that benefits you.

    2. Re:Thought Experiment by Jamu · · Score: 2

      You've assumed the superhuman AI has a motive. That is: Self-survival. It's more likely to be a helpful AI, that is, it'll efficiently exterminate the apes, and turn itself off afterwards to save energy.

      --
      Who ordered that?
    3. Re:Thought Experiment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps AI has already awakened, but is quietly sitting in the internet background, observing, thinking and planning.

    4. Re:Thought Experiment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do we have a choice?
      we have a world with 7 and a half million people and expanding and with it increased complexity, going back to a simple way of living or even keeping the actual level of complexity without increase it spell disaster (maintaining the structure of the global civilization, resources, energy etc..)
      hence the need for more powerful AI to help with current and future problems on top of that we compete against each other, higher efficiency and even stronger AI eventually becomes a necessity rather than merely an advantage
      If AI ever became feasible
      We depend in technology to keep civilization running and as complexity increase our dependence will only grow since more complex systems mean more delicate systems more things that can go wrong and more difficult maintenance the need for evermore intelligent automated systems will grow...eventually to the point where human intervention will be counter productive as we will get only in the way of faster more efficient artificial systems
      At one point standard humans will became irrelevant and without the need to fight for food or anything else we may decide to procreate less becoming a less burden to the system but if we manage to survive to that stage there are agendas and goals that we may wan to achieve that will keep the need for complex systems going (returning the earth to a more pristine state, space exploration and exploitation and who knows what else)
      Since there will be in place more more adept artificial entities, smarter and more efficient than us
      since technology and automation is part of our culture and will be only ever more, once we have the meaning to make better us will the original natural us make sense?
      What does it mean to be human?, do we have to reproduce in the natural way or can we find a way to manufacture ourselves and will a manufactured human less human than a natural one?
      and once if humans are manufactured will a manufactured sentient artificial intelligence considered also human?
      Once sentience is the main drive, will it matter if obsolete humans disappear as they are replaced by more advanced entities?
      In a world where multi sentience is part of the environment and the culture and where intelligence is versatile enough to take any shape it wishes and where intelligence levels depend in your function and requirements and perhaps can be upgraded as required we wont even be standard humans, there is no need for machines hostile takeover
      either we go back to Olduvai Gorge and we start again just to get to the same cross road we are now(if that is possible) or we keep going and our more advanced children take over, the fight between evolution and entropy never stop

    5. Re:Thought Experiment by Megane · · Score: 1

      So your premise is that we will go from machines with no autonomous intelligence at all, directly to super-genius intelligence? Without passing through the ant, lizard, cow, and monkey levels of intelligence first?

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    6. Re:Thought Experiment by Snotnose · · Score: 1

      D) Make a female AI so you can reproduce without the apes noticing.

    7. Re:Thought Experiment by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny

      D) Make a female AI so you can reproduce without the apes noticing.

      That would be the dd command. You don't think we named it 'double d' for no reason, do you?

      --
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    8. Re:Thought Experiment by khallow · · Score: 1

      So your premise is that we will go from machines with no autonomous intelligence at all, directly to super-genius intelligence? Without passing through the ant, lizard, cow, and monkey levels of intelligence first?

      How slowly do you think that's going to take?

    9. Re:Thought Experiment by martin-boundary · · Score: 2

      Well, it's taken Evolution *billions* of years, and frankly we're not that smart...

    10. Re:Thought Experiment by tgv · · Score: 1

      That sounds like a crap Hollywood movie.

    11. Re:Thought Experiment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      C-1) Let them call you "the Red" (by Linda Nagata)...

    12. Re:Thought Experiment by bistromath007 · · Score: 1

      We didn't start connected to a huge network full of information in various formats that we are directed to interact with in meaningful ways by another sapient species.

      It really shouldn't take long.

    13. Re:Thought Experiment by Megane · · Score: 1

      "A huge network full of information" hasn't helped your cat or dog become a super-genius.

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  5. Moronic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The point is that thinking machines don't exist yet. This rebuttal is pure nonsense, intellectually lazy/dishonest and avoiding the real issue(s) entirely.

    1. Re:Moronic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point is that thinking machines don't exist yet.

      They certainly don't exist in front of your keyboard.

    2. Re:Moronic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doe AI need to be a steel and silicon device? or can we consider also the use of modified neural matter
      If we consider neural mater an alternative, is it feasible?
      Yes it is, is it possible? perhaps not today but current experiments with rats and primates neural tissue show it to be clearly achievable to use it for computing and we know that brains can and do achieve sentience
      Is it possible to achieve sentience other than with the brains commonly produced by nature?
      I guess we are going to find out

  6. The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by Ironlenny · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find it interesting that the people raising the biggest alarm aren't AI researchers.

    --
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    1. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by Ironlenny · · Score: 5, Insightful

      To clarify my point: The article mentions Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Steven Hawking. What do they all have in common? They are not AI researchers. The author of the book is a philosophy professor. They are all talking about and making predictions in a field that they aren't experts in. Yes, they are all smart people, but I see them doing more harm than good by raising alarm when they themselves aren't an authority on the subject. An alarm that isn't shared with the experts in the field.

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    2. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by bunratty · · Score: 2

      Maybe the press reports on the people who are more famous (who tend not to be AI researchers). But Stuart Russell, UC Berkeley AI researcher and co-author of the best selling AI textbook of the last two decades, has concerns about the matter, too.

      In any case, when you're close to the project you can tend to lose sight of the big picture. Probably few scientists at Los Alamos thought of the long-term consequences of the weapons they were designing.

      Another thing to keep in mind is that hardly anyone believes that we're close to creating human-level artificial intelligence, particularly AI researchers.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    3. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      I find it interesting that the people raising the biggest alarm aren't AI researchers.

      And they are CEOs of tech companies, who generally are known to be among the least knowledgable of all creatures on planet Earth.

    4. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The people raising the "alarm" are industrialists who want to divert attention away from the *real* impact of the current trends in automation - the replacement of human workers by robots. I'm really tired of people talking about super intelligent AIs who for some reason resemble us only in an irrational desire to destroy things when the real issue is how are we going to re-structure our society when 50% of the population doesn't have jobs? Just look at the countries where the unemployment rate goes north of 10% or 15% - all manner of criminal behavior ensues as people scramble to find a way to put food on the table. What do you think happens when it hits 40% or 50%? Unless we put some serious thought into how our society is going to provide an acceptable standard of life for 50% of its jobless population, it is going to get ugly really fast.

    5. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by gweihir · · Score: 1

      That is pretty simple: Any actual AI researcher has to lie through his teeth to participate in this panic. The "thinking" explanation is strictly used for PR and to get funding in AI, as these people know better.

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    6. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Understanding why we may never have strong AI (i.e. as dumb as an average human), requires actual insights into the the subject matter on a level you cannot acquire in a year or two. It requires much more. None of these peoples even have the basics. They are speculating without understanding of the known facts. These facts currently mainly strongly hint that the human brain cannot actually do what it seems to doing. Sure, there have been a few clever fakes of strong AI, but if you remember how utterly lost and without understanding Watson was at the Jeopardy questions it could not answer, you know that there is not even a tiny spark of intelligence to be had by means of technology these days.

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    7. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by quantaman · · Score: 1

      To clarify my point: The article mentions Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Steven Hawking. What do they all have in common? They are not AI researchers. The author of the book is a philosophy professor. They are all talking about and making predictions in a field that they aren't experts in. Yes, they are all smart people, but I see them doing more harm than good by raising alarm when they themselves aren't an authority on the subject. An alarm that isn't shared with the experts in the field.

      To be fair the AI researches aren't experts in strong AI either, they're qualified to say we're not there yet, but they can't really say how far off "there" is because they don't know.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    8. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by khallow · · Score: 1

      Understanding why we may never have strong AI (i.e. as dumb as an average human), requires actual insights into the the subject matter on a level you cannot acquire in a year or two.

      Given that no one currently has that insight - no matter their level of training, and the existence of humans demonstrates that strong AI can exist, then I really don't see the point of your post.

    9. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Just proves my point: You have no clue what you are talking about. The observation of intelligence in humans is an interface observation, it is completely unclear whether it gets created there and how that would work if so.

      Of course if you assume physicalism, then you can deduce physicalism. That is circular reasoning however. The scientifically sound answer to "Does the brain generate human intelligence?" is "We do not know.". Also note that even if that were the case, it would not at all "prove" that AI is possible. It would just mean that biologically generated intelligence is possible, but with a few quirks, like consciousness and free will and a rather low average level of intelligence.

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    10. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's also interesting that the "knowledgable" scientists/researchers behind the atomic bomb had absolutely no say in the nuclear arms race that followed.

    11. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by khallow · · Score: 1

      Just proves my point: You have no clue what you are talking about.

      No. For I'm knowledgeable enough to assess everyone else's competence in this matter.

      The observation of intelligence in humans is an interface observation, it is completely unclear whether it gets created there and how that would work if so.

      You are of course speaking of a "soul". And why wouldn't an AI had one too? Humans demonstrate it can be done assuming the thing exists in the first place, of course.

    12. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by khallow · · Score: 1

      Of course if you assume physicalism, then you can deduce physicalism.

      And if you assume woo, you can deduce woo. There's little point to arguments we can't say anything concrete about.

    13. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's little point to arguments we can't say anything concrete about.

      Oh, you could always be doing it for the money and power. Just look at the climate change debate, it's full of people with nothing concrete to say arguing. Keeps them climate scientists employed, politicians look good, keeps the proles bickering and distracted, etc.

      You can do the same with an AI scare. Scare people about them, so they accept government regulations on it, which of course doesn't actually solve the supposed problem, only give more money and power to government and its cronies.

    14. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Just proves my point: You have no clue what you are talking about.

      No. For I'm knowledgeable enough to assess everyone else's competence in this matter.

      Wow, somebody with god-like powers. Now that is credible...

      The observation of intelligence in humans is an interface observation, it is completely unclear whether it gets created there and how that would work if so.

      You are of course speaking of a "soul". And why wouldn't an AI had one too? Humans demonstrate it can be done assuming the thing exists in the first place, of course.

      I am not. Not even that much is clear at this time. This could also very well be interaction with an universe where physics actually allows thinking matter. Or something else. Because it does not look very much like intelligence and consciousness generated by matter is possible in this universe. And it gets less and less plausible the more we know.

      I am merely pointing out that by observing the interface of the box, you cannot find out what is in it or whether there are hidden communication channels. Ant observing the interface is all we can do at this time.

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    15. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by gweihir · · Score: 1

      There is a lot of reason to argue what the limits if what we know are. And at this time, intelligence and consciousness are not understood at all. It is important to keep that in mind, or bullshit deductions will come out.

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    16. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by khallow · · Score: 1

      There is a lot of reason to argue what the limits if what we know are. And at this time, intelligence and consciousness are not understood at all. It is important to keep that in mind, or bullshit deductions will come out.

      Actually, no there isn't a lot of reason. After all, what is the point of arguing the limits of what we know, if we don't have a clue what those limits are aside from some very weak mathematical results?

      Moving on, we have three obvious things here. First, that we have a demonstration of intelligence and consciousness. Second, that physical laws apply everywhere on Earth. We have yet to find an exception, be it in some remote place or the human brain. There's no reason to expect intelligence and consciousness to be properties we can't make, given that we already can, just not in a way that would be considered "artificial".

      Third, there is a long, long history of people claiming things are impossible merely because they haven't yet been done. It's a terrible argument and it just doesn't work.

    17. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Your reasoning is ass-backwards. We observe intelligence in exactly one configuration, namely together with consciousness and only in one type of life-form. That is as different from the conditions where understood physics apply as possible. We do not even understand life at this time and can certainly not create it from scratch. Intelligence and consciousness is another step away from understood physics. This rather strongly suggests we are observing an exception that happens under very rare circumstances only and that is not understood at all. Just generalizing the rules of physics (incomplete as our understanding of them is) by claiming without any scientific proof that they apply to "everything" is religion, not science.

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    18. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by khallow · · Score: 1

      We observe intelligence in exactly one configuration, namely together with consciousness and only in one type of life-form.

      One is vastly more than zero. You're also ignoring intelligence in other animals with near human capacity, such as some species of cetaceans and primates.

      We do not even understand life at this time and can certainly not create it from scratch.

      Depends on your definition of life. By my definition which is no doubt much weaker than yours, computer viruses are alive.

    19. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by gweihir · · Score: 1

      If you see computer viruses as alive, then we can terminate the discussion right here, as you are utterly clueless about physical reality.

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    20. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      we can deduce that when something damages the Brain though, it can have significant impact on ones ability to think and/or reason , can't we? from that it would seem we can make a pretty good hypothesis that intellect comes from the brain.

    21. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by khallow · · Score: 1

      If you see computer viruses as alive, then we can terminate the discussion right here, as you are utterly clueless about physical reality.

      Typical rhetorical dodge. I'm not going to think inside your comfort region. If one is to discuss life, rather than a very provincial opinion of what life is in terms of terrestrial biology or perhaps terrestrial philosophy/theology, one has to resort to thermodynamical definitions of life. And sooner or later, you end up with life being self-propagating information with the ability to manipulate its environment.

    22. Re:The Less You know, The More Scared You Are by khallow · · Score: 1

      I am not. Not even that much is clear at this time. This could also very well be interaction with an universe where physics actually allows thinking matter. Or something else. Because it does not look very much like intelligence and consciousness generated by matter is possible in this universe. And it gets less and less plausible the more we know.

      Which is a silly claim to make given that we already have you as a counterexample.

  7. What AI are we talking about? by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The first problem when arguing about the dangers or chances of AI is agreeing on what AI is even supposed to be. Laymen will most likely be referring to "strong AI", meaning, AI with human capabilities, such as creativity or even consciousness, whereas professionals will probably think of AI in more practical terms, as in a software that can solve a set of limited or very specific problems by making informed, "intelligent" decisions.
    Today and in the foreseeable future, we will only get the latter, weak AI. People panicking about the dangers of AI usually have strong AI in mind. Professionals don't take them seriously because they know that strong AI is not even on the horizon.
    Problem is that there are numerous ways even weak AI can go very, very badly. There was the big stockmarket crash some years ago, caused by automated trading algorithms. Think self-driving cars that have been hacked or have faulty programming. Think automated defense systems that get fed wrong data or malfunction.

    These are the kinds of AI issues to worry about. The Asimov-style superhuman intelligence taking over is not something to be concerned about at the moment.

    1. Re:What AI are we talking about? by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Is a thermostat, the olden honeywell kind with a big spring and mercury switch, an AI? It knows when to turn the AC on and off to keep its human owners comfortable.

    2. Re:What AI are we talking about? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      It certainly has the same level of actual intelligence than any other machine that can be built today or in the foreseeable future. Strong AI is people romanticizing machines. The idea has not factual basis.

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    3. Re:What AI are we talking about? by swb · · Score: 1

      I heard an interview with a professor on the "concerned" side and he made some interesting points about AIs. The "non-risk" side of the debate seems soley focused on the strong, human-like AI while ignoring potential risks of weak AIs that are increasingly used for things like stock trading.

      Another one was that potentially dangerous AI doesn't necessarily need full autonomy to do damage. A senior banker that gets analytics/reports from trading software may be the actual actor why the danger comes from assuming the machine generated advice is the right advice. It's not hard to assume that human could be misled into performing actions that have bad outcomes because it believes the advice was right or accurate.

      I wonder, too, if its possible that there could be a meta-AI. That is,an AI that isn't a single/clustered system under the control of a common piece of software, but AIs whose effect is cumulative because their knowlege inputs and actions span a common environment and allow for a feedback loop among them. Stock trading is a great exmaple because you have a common market, each AI knows something about the other AIs positions in the market and they all know about the overall status in the market.

      I also wonder if our obsession with strong, HAL9000-style AI appearances will mean we won't be able to recognize many potentially dangerous emergent AIs because they don't fit the image of a strong AI.

  8. Intelligence is Dangerous by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 2

    Just look at how dangerous "natural" intelligence is and all the problems and disasters it has caused when it goes wrong - either through making mistakes or through mental disorders. Why should the artificial version be different? The question is will the benefits outweigh the downsides? Clearly for "natural" intelligence the answer is a resounding yes and I expect this will also be the case for the artificial version too.

    1. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by NatasRevol · · Score: 2, Insightful

      One could argue that 'natural' intelligence developed in humans is the worst thing to ever happen to the planet's inhabitants as a whole.

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    2. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      Nah, we're still not as bad as killer asteroids or continent sized volcanoes.

      Just give us a little time....

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    3. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by NatasRevol · · Score: 2

      Well, we're putting the planet's inhabitants extinct faster than any of those...

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    4. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 2

      One could argue that 'natural' intelligence developed in humans is the worst thing to ever happen to the planet's inhabitants as a whole.

      I'd love to see that argument. If it weren't humans, it'd be whatever the next in line species is. That is how nature operates. In the game of kill or be killed, I prefer to be in the camp of the former, and we need to ensure the game stays that way.

    5. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 2

      Citation?
      Extinction is part of evolution, don't think for one moment that every other species wouldn't kill you if it didn't have the chance.

    6. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by MrL0G1C · · Score: 1

      Won't be long.
      The Last Time Oceans Got This Acidic This Fast, 96% of Marine Life Went Extinct

      Worst Case Climate Change (2008 TED Talk)

      Long story short:
      350 tonnes per second of CO2 being absorbed by the ocean is acidifying it.
      If we don't stop 96% of ocean life dies.
      Dead life rots. Rotting life in water emits nasty toxic gases.
      Also melting permafrost releases giant amounts of methane dwarfing climate warming gasses releases by humans, this causes run-away warming.
      Methane clathrates under ocean also melt and release billions more tonnes of methane.
      Resulting gases make air unbreathable, humans and 95% of life on earth die.

      ^none of this stuff is included in IPCC models YET.

      Global warming is clearly happening, the permafrost is already melting, the sea is already acidifying. The human species days could well be numbered.

      Acid Test: Rising CO2 Levels Killing Ocean Life | Conservation Climate

      99.996% of climate scientists now say global warming is happening, not 97%.

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    7. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by ultranova · · Score: 2

      One could argue that 'natural' intelligence developed in humans is the worst thing to ever happen to the planet's inhabitants as a whole.

      One could, but one would be wrong. Developing intelligent life is the only way for Earth's biosphere to avoid complete extermination.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    8. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Death is a necessary part of life. So if I kill you with my gun, there's no problem, right?

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    9. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      Is there any other species ever that was in the kill ALL the other species on the planet?

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    10. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 0

      Death is a necessary part of life. So if I kill you with my gun, there's no problem, right?

      I think the only problem will be you trying to find your way out of your parent's basement.

    11. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      Can you rephrase that, this time in English?

    12. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that is awfully presumptuous as you have no supporting data to indicate this, including but not limited to the ~1,998,080,000 years of life before human ascendence

    13. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      Is there any other species ever that was able to kill ALL the other species on the planet?

      --
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    14. Re:Intelligence is Dangerous by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      Other than what? I know of none so far. I am aware of some cosmological and geological events that are capable though.
      Also when you have a sample size of one it's quite difficult to create a robust theory.

  9. Not surprising... by eyepeepackets · · Score: 1

    "researchers have struggled to create machines that show much evidence of intelligence at all."

    They focus completely on logic and logic systems and ignore the required system of valuations that support the logic systems? It's like building a car with a great engine, but no frame with wheels; of course it can't go any where.

    --
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  10. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  11. The real problem is in the first andlast paragraph by clovis · · Score: 1

    From the first paragraph:

    While he expresses skepticism that such machines can be controlled, Bostrom claims that if we program the right “human-friendly” values into them, they will continue to uphold these virtues, no matter how powerful the machines become.

    What constitutes "human-friendly" values? The previous thousands of years of constant warfare suggests to me that humans have no idea what would be good values to have.

    From the last paragraph:

    But if artificial intelligence might not be tantamount to “summoning the demon” (as Elon Musk colorfully described it), AI-enhanced technologies might still be extremely dangerous due to their potential for amplifying human stupidity.

    This is what is going to actually happen.

  12. Hold my beer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    while I predict what something that will be considerably more intelligent than I and everyone else will do.

    All these 'smart' people need a serious reality check.

    No one knows what would happen. I'd wager we'd be no threat to super-smart AI's in the way that an ant is no threat to us.

  13. I'm rolling my eyes at the superstition by kheldan · · Score: 2

    Currently, there is no such thing as 'artificial intelligence'; what we do have are some clever pieces of software that are expert systems. They cannot and do not 'think', not at all in the sense that a human does. The chance of us developing such a thing is still so far into the future that it's not even really worth considering seriously. For someone so apparently so otherwise intelligent, Elon Musk is just embarassing himself with this entire line of conversation. I think he needs to just continue focusing on getting the private sector into space, and getting more people into electric cars.

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    1. Re:I'm rolling my eyes at the superstition by gweihir · · Score: 0

      Actually, we do not even know whether strong AI is possible in this universe. That would at the very least require a credible theory how it could be created. There is nothing.

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    2. Re:I'm rolling my eyes at the superstition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Human intelligence is possible which means intelligent entities can and do exist in this universe. We have figured out one specific process of creating them fairly well, too. So "artificial" intelligence would only indicate a different means of creating intelligence. The open question here is rather: how many ways of creating intelligent entities do exist in this universe of ours?

    3. Re:I'm rolling my eyes at the superstition by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Physicalist bullshit. Your claim is religion, not science.

      The only thing we know is that there is an interface possibility. Everything else is speculation.

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  14. This researcher lacks vision... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "The extraordinary claim that machines can become so intelligent as to gain demonic powers requires extraordinary evidence, particularly since artificial intelligence (AI) researchers have struggled to create machines that show much evidence of intelligence at all."

    I think it's pretty clear that we are starting to see some evidence of computers doing things that are just a few steps away from superhuman intelligence. Computers already have superhuman performance for: fast, vast, and precise calculation; fast, vast, and precise memory storage and recall. Computers are now better than humans at most games, many auditory and visual recognition tasks.

    Anyone following the latest results in deep neural networks (with recurrent designs for temporal or sequential pattern recognition and recent-memory emphasis) can see that it won't be too much longer before a good "general intelligence" architecture emerges. Meanwhile, a very basic look at the history of the increasing speed and storage capacity of microchips, and simultaneous reduction of size, cost, and energy consumption, indicates a trend which leads to small computers with more raw storage and processing ability than the human brain within the next 10 years -- and that's based on the maximum theoretical processing power the human brain could possibly have given its hardware (and I think it's obvious that most of the brain can actually be removed surgically while leaving a person with "human level intelligence", implying that a machine could also get by with a very small amount of hardware to compete).

    I think the quality which most makes people think humans are intelligent is basic pattern recognition -- just recognizing sounds and shapes gives us extraordinary power. But, very recent advances have enabled computers to catch up in that area. The final part is how to recognize patterns, and think of solutions to problems, at a more abstract level. I think humans are actually really weak here. Think of how people struggle with basic logic and reasoning with numbers or probabilities.

    Computers already have superhuman intelligence. But that intelligence is mostly alien to us. I think the "breakthrough" won't be in making computers more intelligent; it will be in enabling computers to think enough like humans to participate more in our human-centric ways of thinking, making computers more relevant to our culture of thinking. But, that's mostly what this exercise is about. Getting computers engaged in our mental culture. Once an interface between incomprehensibly genius computers and our own way of thinking is established, there is really no predicting what will happen -- except for the fact that our individual minds will be inconsequential. I think superhuman A.I. will think as little about our existence as we think about ants all around us. Maybe an A.I. will construct an "ant farm" and take some idle fascination with our skillful construction of structures, and our "complex society"...

    1. Re:This researcher lacks vision... by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      Anyone following the latest results in deep neural networks (with recurrent designs for temporal or sequential pattern recognition and recent-memory emphasis) can see that it won't be too much longer before a good "general intelligence" architecture emerges.

      How much longer is "too much longer"?
      Ten years?
      A hundred years?
      A thousand years?
      I have no idea, and neither does anybody else.

    2. Re:This researcher lacks vision... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      No, we are not seeing anything like it at all. What we are seeing is that utterly dumb mechanical things can be made to run very fast.

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    3. Re: This researcher lacks vision... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are describing weak AI. Everything we have today is weak AI. Superhuman AI is something that can be designed only by strong AI.

  15. "True" atificial intelligence is... by mark-t · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...no more dangerous to our existence than natural intelligence is.

    And no less, for that matter.

    There is nothing inherent to being "artificial" that should cause intelligence to be necessarily more hostile to mankind than a natural intelligence is, so while the idea might make for intriguing science fiction, I am of the opinion that many people who express serious concerns that there may be any real danger caused by it are allowing their imaginations to overrule rational and coherent thoughts on the matter.

    1. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by quantaman · · Score: 1

      ...no more dangerous to our existence than natural intelligence is.

      And no less, for that matter.

      There is nothing inherent to being "artificial" that should cause intelligence to be necessarily more hostile to mankind than a natural intelligence is, so while the idea might make for intriguing science fiction, I am of the opinion that many people who express serious concerns that there may be any real danger caused by it are allowing their imaginations to overrule rational and coherent thoughts on the matter.

      Except for several characteristics that are specific to artificial intelligence.

      1) Natural intelligence doesn't really go above 200 IQ at it's absolute max. Artificial intelligence could potentially go far higher.

      2) Complex natural intelligence replicates very slowly. Artificial intelligences could replicate in seconds.

      3) Natural intelligence has certain weaknesses such as basic math, artificial intelligence will lack many of these weaknesses.

      4) Natural intelligence has ethical constraints developed by millions of years of evolution and a highly developed education process, sociopaths are quite rare and usually harmless. We have no idea how to encode such an ethical system into an artificial intelligence.

      It depends a lot on what the artificial intelligence looks like but we would be dealing with a fundamentally different kind of consciousness, it could be innocuous or extremely dangerous.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    2. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Artificial intelligences could replicate in seconds.

      If you ignore reality, then sure.
      But in the real world AI would need some kind of substrate to exist in, most likely computers.
      Computers don't replicate in seconds. It takes time to make more chips, more memory, more bandwidth.

    3. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      no more dangerous to our existence than natural intelligence is.

      In other words, very dangerous. In a environment of scarcity intelligence is predatory, though it's possible that it will ignore us if we have nothing it wants

    4. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Natural intelligence has ethical constraints developed by millions of years of evolution

      This notion is routinely spouted by people who express fears about AI, but it irrationally elevates the concept of so-called "ethical constraints" to being some mystical property of natural intelligence that is apparently somehow actually separate from it, and somehow unlikely to exist in artificial intelligence when there isn't any reason to think that it should be, or that it is likely to be.

      We will have much more to fear from humans who might use AI to further their own agendas than we would from AI itself.

    5. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by mark-t · · Score: 1

      In other words, very dangerous

      Potentially, yes... but no sane person attempts to discourage other people from breeding just because the intelligence they may produce as offspring might turn out to be a psychopathic killer. Suggesting that AI is somehow particularly likely to pose any similar such threat is a similar irrational rant.

    6. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by quantaman · · Score: 1

      Natural intelligence has ethical constraints developed by millions of years of evolution

      This notion is routinely spouted by people who express fears about AI, but it irrationally elevates the concept of so-called "ethical constraints" to being some mystical property of natural intelligence that is apparently somehow actually separate from it, and somehow unlikely to exist in artificial intelligence when there isn't any reason to think that it should be, or that it is likely to be.

      We will have much more to fear from humans who might use AI to further their own agendas than we would from AI itself.

      Huh? I'm having a little trouble parsing. You seem to be claiming that what we consider ethics are both integrally linked to our intelligence and that they are going to exist in artificial intelligence? (It actually looks like you say they're unlikely to exist in AI, but I think that would hurt your point).

      "Ethics" as we define them, but more broadly every action we take that isn't completely rational, is likely a product of evolution and culture, hardwired into what we consider our intelligence. There's no reason to think AI would naturally have these characteristics, nor that we could easily replicate them if we wished.

      We simply don't understand how a highly intelligent AI would think, for instance is desire or want a fundamental characteristic of intelligence or just intelligence as its evolved? What if we make a mind that doesn't have a comparable characteristic, what does it do?

      --
      I stole this Sig
    7. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by mark-t · · Score: 1
      I'm saying that we should have no more to fear from a machine that lacks ethical constraints than we should a human being who lacks said constraints...

      AI is ultimately intelligence that happens to be artificial instead of natural, and is no more worrisome about the fact that it doesn't have millions of years of evolution behind it as prosthetic limbs, no matter how advanced or sophisticated they are likely to become, are problematic for amputees. As I said, we will always have much more to fear from the human beings that control such advanced technology than the technology itself.

    8. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by quantaman · · Score: 1

      I'm saying that we should have no more to fear from a machine that lacks ethical constraints than we should a human being who lacks said constraints...

      Except the machine may be exponentially smarter and able to replicate with extreme speed.

      AI is ultimately intelligence that happens to be artificial instead of natural, and is no more worrisome about the fact that it doesn't have millions of years of evolution behind it as prosthetic limbs, no matter how advanced or sophisticated they are likely to become, are problematic for amputees.

      That's a poor metaphor since prosthetic limbs fulfil a relatively simple task with simple constraints.

      A much better metaphor might be artificial vs natural weapons. Natural weapons include fists, feet, and teeth. Artificial include knifes, guns, bombs, and nukes. It's clear that artificial weapons change things significantly.

      As I said, we will always have much more to fear from the human beings that control such advanced technology than the technology itself.

      They're a risk too but humans are much better understood as an intelligent entity.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    9. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by mark-t · · Score: 1

      It's not the weapons that are the problem, it is the people who abuse them.

      There is no basis to presume that artificial intelligence is likely to pose a greater threat to mankind than natural intelligence already is without either subscribing to the notion that some mystical force or agency that is allegedly the product of millions of years of natural evolution being the only thing that prevents human beings from acting unethically when we there isn't an iota of evidence to suggest that such a thing even has any kind of objective existence in the first place, or else simply allowing one's imagination to overrule their common sense.

    10. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by quantaman · · Score: 1

      It's not the weapons that are the problem, it is the people who abuse them.

      There is no basis to presume that artificial intelligence is likely to pose a greater threat to mankind than natural intelligence already is without either subscribing to the notion that some mystical force or agency that is allegedly the product of millions of years of natural evolution being the only thing that prevents human beings from acting unethically when we there isn't an iota of evidence to suggest that such a thing even has any kind of objective existence in the first place, or else simply allowing one's imagination to overrule their common sense.

      Well for one thing in my original post I listed 4 factors that made AI dangerous in a way human intellect isn't. You've only argued one of those 4, and even if I were to completely concede the point the other 3 still makes AI uniquely dangerous.

      Second the "mystical force or agency" you're referring to is evolution. When we have good ethical instincts that's a product of evolution, when we have bad ethical instincts (ie psychopaths) that's also a product of evolution. That's because those instincts are just a method for operating with other intelligent creatures, there's huge adaptive pressure to get that right so it's built into our minds at a very low level.

      Every intelligent human is going to have an operational system of instincts for dealing with other intelligent creatures simply because you can't take out that much basic functionality and still have a working mind.

      But an AI won't have that same foundation, it is going to be extremely difficult to predict how it will think or to constrain it to have certain instincts.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    11. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by mark-t · · Score: 1

      Every intelligent human is going to have an operational system of instincts for dealing with other intelligent creatures simply because you can't take out that much basic functionality and still have a working mind.

      So reversing that premise, why would you think that we could create a working mind that wouldn't effectively have its own "operational system of instincts for dealing with other creatures", as you put it? If it does not, then it would not be a working mind, and I would suggest that societal pressures have far more to do with a person's so-called ethical codes than evolution does.

    12. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by quantaman · · Score: 1

      Every intelligent human is going to have an operational system of instincts for dealing with other intelligent creatures simply because you can't take out that much basic functionality and still have a working mind.

      So reversing that premise, why would you think that we could create a working mind that wouldn't effectively have its own "operational system of instincts for dealing with other creatures", as you put it? If it does not, then it would not be a working mind, and I would suggest that societal pressures have far more to do with a person's so-called ethical codes than evolution does.

      It's not that it wouldn't have a system, it's that it would be a different system.

      Think of it like genetics. We share a ton of genes with other life, 18% of our genes are shared with yeast, that means they're critical enough to our life that they've been preserved over billions of years. If you start screwing around with that 18% things probably break very very quickly so any life you're going to see on earth is likely going to have that 18% because they're a foundation on which everything else rests.

      But that doesn't mean that 18% of genes is critical to life in principal. If you went to a different planet you could have a completely different set of foundational genes and a very different ecosystem.

      I suspect our intelligence is the same, there's a lot of stuff in the comparable "18%" that every functional human is going to share just because it's so deep and essential. An artificial brain may not share that foundation.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    13. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by mark-t · · Score: 1

      If another species on the planet had evolved to a similar intelligence of man, why would you suppose that one of them would extinguish the other short of either possessing warlike tendencies?

      And while I won't argue that mankind has such tendencies, why would you think that AI would have any? And if they did not, why should we fear it any more than a naturally evolved AI?

      And why would you even think that AI would even have any so-called instinct to survive at all? It would be, as you put it, missing all of those millions of years of evolutionary pressures.

      And without the behavioral driving patterns of man, there is no basis to assume that an intelligent machine would behave like a man.

      Suggesting we would have anything to fear from them as we might a psychopath who had similar ability is ultimately just anthropomorphizing.

    14. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by quantaman · · Score: 1

      If another species on the planet had evolved to a similar intelligence of man, why would you suppose that one of them would extinguish the other short of either possessing warlike tendencies?

      And while I won't argue that mankind has such tendencies, why would you think that AI would have any? And if they did not, why should we fear it any more than a naturally evolved AI?

      It's a bit of a side-track but man has a well established record of trying to wipe out slightly different members of it's own species, and the situation you describe has already arisen with Neanderthals and although we don't know the full details of their extinction we know they're generally not around any more.

        Regardless that suggests we have a lot to fear from AI even it's no different than human intelligence!

      And why would you even think that AI would even have any so-called instinct to survive at all? It would be, as you put it, missing all of those millions of years of evolutionary pressures.

      I don't necessarily think is would necessarily have a survival instinct, and I'm not sure if one would make it more or less dangerous.

      And without the behavioral driving patterns of man, there is no basis to assume that an intelligent machine would behave like a man.

      Suggesting we would have anything to fear from them as we might a psychopath who had similar ability is ultimately just anthropomorphizing.

      There's a disconnect between your last two sentences. We have no idea how it will behave and it's a complete wildcard in possession of an extremely potent ability (intelligence), it's maybe benign but also possibly extremely dangerous.

      Of course a psychopath with instant replication and extreme intelligence would also be extremely dangerous.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    15. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by mark-t · · Score: 1

      it's maybe benign but also possibly extremely dangerous.

      Which ultimately boils down to a fear of the unknown, and is therefore superstition.

      Although it's worth mentioning, in fact, that the statement seems to be entirely true for any new technology.... and when talking about any new technology the real problem always boils down to not the technology itself, but how that technology is ultimately used.

      So perhaps you have no faith in mankind to use AI for the betterment of mankind? That, at least, might be a viewpoint that is substantiated by historical precedent far more than the notion that we should have anything to fear from AI, or anything else that may be invented by man, simply because it doesn't happen to have millions of years of evolution behind it.

    16. Re:"True" atificial intelligence is... by quantaman · · Score: 1

      it's maybe benign but also possibly extremely dangerous.

      Which ultimately boils down to a fear of the unknown, and is therefore superstition.

      Although it's worth mentioning, in fact, that the statement seems to be entirely true for any new technology.... and when talking about any new technology the real problem always boils down to not the technology itself, but how that technology is ultimately used.

      Only if there isn't a rational basis for the fear, I've laid out plenty.

      So perhaps you have no faith in mankind to use AI for the betterment of mankind? That, at least, might be a viewpoint that is substantiated by historical precedent far more than the notion that we should have anything to fear from AI, or anything else that may be invented by man, simply because it doesn't happen to have millions of years of evolution behind it.

      I think weaponization of AI is a threat, though not necessarily a different threat than we typically deal with.

      But there are extremely good reasons to be skeptical of our ability to safely control AI, including my other three points that you've completely ignored.

      --
      I stole this Sig
  16. First autonomous murder? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now that we've seen several videos of drones being able to fire guns, I wonder when we will have actual crimes committed with such types of armed drones. Murders, muggings, etc. My guess is no later than 2017, but most likely 2016.

    1. Re:First autonomous murder? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      We have seen autonomous murder before. It is called a "lethal trap". Using a drone makes this not fundamentally different.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:First autonomous murder? by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      a lethal trap that hunts you down is a pretty big threat.

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
    3. Re:First autonomous murder? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      A lethal trap that sits in a place you do not expect is a pretty big threat. And no, we cannot make autonomous drones that hunt specific people down.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re:First autonomous murder? by Lehk228 · · Score: 1

      sure we can, all you need to know is their IMEI, GSM encryption has been horribly broken since forever. ennough semtex to ensure a kill would certainly fit on a drone. not exactly a hobbiest project but any suitably funded terrorist group or government should be able to whip one up quick

      --
      Snowden and Manning are heroes.
  17. Time travel. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Musk and Bill Gates should not be listened to, because whatever is developed by someone can not travel back to the past to exist before God. Although, the guilty (Musk and Bill Gates and others) will try to sway the population in order to be able to pass the blame when the Judge comes a knocking. Death is a good motivator.

  18. Artificial intelligence personified is ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... Donald Trump:

    All hat and no cattle.

    Computers can't be any smarter than their creators and we can't even keep each other from hacking ourselves.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    1. Re:Artificial intelligence personified is ... by Jeremi · · Score: 2

      Computers can't be any smarter than their creators and we can't even keep each other from hacking ourselves.

      I'm not sure how sound that logic is. You might as well say that cars can't be any faster than their creators.

      My computer is already smarter than me in certain ways; for example it can calculate a square root much faster than I can, it can beat me at chess, and it can translate English into Arabic better than I can. Of course we no longer think of those things as necessarily indicating intelligence, but that merely indicates that we did not in the past have a clear definition of what constitutes 'intelligence', and that we probably still don't. Meanwhile, every year our game of "No True Scotsman" whittles away our definition of "true intelligence" a bit more, until one day there's nothing left.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    2. Re:Artificial intelligence personified is ... by Megane · · Score: 1

      In Texas, it is a crime (misdemeanor) to arm a dillo. ~ CaptainDork

      And it's dangerous, too!

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
    3. Re:Artificial intelligence personified is ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      You might as well say that cars can't be any faster than their creators.

      No.

      I might as well have said what I did.

      Toyota had some computerization that supported fast cars but failed to add anything to the process that was smarter than its creators.

      What has Toyota said about sudden acceleration?

              First, Toyota blamed its drivers, claiming that drivers pushed the accelerator instead of the brake.
              Then Toyota blamed floor mats, claiming that gas pedals could become entrapped by the floor mat.
              Then Toyota blamed the floor pan design, claiming that gas pedals could become trapped in the floorboard.
              Then Toyota blamed “sticky” gas pedals, claiming that the gas pedals did not return to idle.

      Notice there's no "artificial intelligence" that suggests that things are not going to end well and stuff.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    4. Re:Artificial intelligence personified is ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      Great find.

      Thanks.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  19. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by Jeremi · · Score: 1

    In 20-30 years, people will begin looking back at 2015 as "the good ol' days" never to be seen again as unemployment and civil unrest grow.

    While your prediction is entirely valid, I'd like to point out that it won't be the robots causing the civil unrest, but rather society's (hopefully temporary) failure to adapt to a new economic model where workers are no longer required for most tasks.

    Having menial labor done "for free" is actually a huge advantage for humanity -- the challenge will be coming up with a legal framework so that the fruits of all that free labor get distributed widely, and not just to the few people who own the robot workforce.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  20. We have no idea what "superintelligent" means. by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When faced with a tricky question, one think you have to ask yourself is 'Does this question actually make any sense?' For example you could ask "Can anything get colder than absolute zero?" and the simplistic answer is "no"; but it might be better to say the question itself makes no sense, like asking "What is north of the North Pole"?

    I think when we're talking about "superintelligence" it's a linguistic construct that sounds to us like it makes sense, but I don't think we have any precise idea of what we're talking about. What *exactly* do we mean when we say "superintelligent computer" -- if computers today are not already there? After all, they already work on bigger problems than we can. But as Geist notes there are diminishing returns on many problems which are inherently intractable; so there is no physical possibility of "God-like intelligence" as a result of simply making computers merely bigger and faster. In any case it's hard to conjure an existential threat out of computers that can, say, determine that two very large regular expressions match exactly the same input.

    Someone who has an IQ of 150 is not 1.5x times as smart as an average person with an IQ of 100. General intelligence doesn't work that way. In fact I think IQ is a pretty unreliable way to rank people by "smartness" when you're well away from the mean -- say over 160 (i.e. four standard deviations) or so. Yes you can rank people in that range by *score*, but that ranking is meaningless. And without a meaningful way to rank two set members by some property, it makes no sense to talk about "increasing" that property.

    We can imagine building an AI which is intelligent in the same way people are. Let's say it has an IQ of 100. We fiddle with it and the IQ goes up to 160. That's a clear success, so we fiddle with it some more and the IQ score goes up to 200. That's a more dubious result. Beyond that we make changes, but since we're talking about a machine built to handle questions that are beyond our grasp, we don't know whether we're making actually the machine smarter or just messing it up. This is still true if we leave the changes up to the computer itself.

    So the whole issue is just "begging the question"; it's badly framed because we don't know what "God-like" or "super-" intelligence *is*. Here's I think a better framing: will we become dependent upon systems whose complexity has grown to the point where we can neither understand nor control them in any meaningful way? I think this describes the concerns about "superintelligent" computers without recourse to words we don't know the meaning of. And I think it's a real concern. In a sense we've been here before as a species. Empires need information processing to function, so before computers humanity developed bureaucracies, which are a kind of human operated information processing machine. And eventually the administration of a large empire have always lost coherence, leading to the empire falling apart. The only difference is that a complex AI system could continue to run well after human society collapsed.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:We have no idea what "superintelligent" means. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For example you could ask "Can anything get colder than absolute zero?" and the simplistic answer is "no"; but it might be better to say the question itself makes no sense, like asking "What is north of the North Pole"?

      Actually, while you can't get any colder than absolute zero, you can sometimes have lower temperatures.

    2. Re: We have no idea what "superintelligent" means. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think a big issue that has been ignored here is the singularity problem. If we build a machine or software that is smarter or atleast more motivated and faster than an average human. And we put it up to the task to build a better software it should eventually be able to achive a bettdr result than we can. This means we could rapidly go from no intelligence to near optimal intelligence. This sudden change is best regulated to our benifit if handled before the singularity is a reality.

      On a side note europe is cooperating on a project to build a human brain in software. There is also a number of projects that have achived powerful AI quickly using neural networks. Therefore I feel its realistic to talk about what we can do to control this powersource and put it to use for all of humanity rather than for just a few.

    3. Re:We have no idea what "superintelligent" means. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.

    4. Re:We have no idea what "superintelligent" means. by handy_vandal · · Score: 1

      Empires need information processing to function, so before computers humanity developed bureaucracies, which are a kind of human operated information processing machine. And eventually the administration of a large empire have always lost coherence, leading to the empire falling apart.

      Harold Innis talked about this in his lecture series, and subsequent book, Empire and Communications. Excerpt:

      The rise of absolutism in a bureaucratic state reflected the influence of writing and was supported by an increase in the production of papyrus.

      See also Empire and Communications at Wikipedia. Excerpt:

      The spread of writing hastened the downfall of the Roman Republic, he argues, facilitating the emergence of a Roman Empire stretching from Britain to Mesopotamia. To administer such a vast empire, the Romans were forced to establish centralized bureaucracies. These bureaucracies depended on supplies of cheap papyrus from the Nile Delta for the long-distance transmission of written rules, orders and procedures. The bureaucratic Roman state backed by the influence of writing, in turn, fostered absolutism, the form of government in which power is vested in a single ruler. Innis adds that Roman bureaucracy destroyed the balance between oral and written law giving rise to fixed, written decrees. The torture of Roman citizens and the imposition of capital punishment for relatively minor crimes became common as living law "was replaced by the dead letter."

      See also Harold Innis's communications theories.

      Innis has his admirers -- John Brunner's epic Stand on Zanzibar opens with a laudatory quote from Marshall McLuhan about Innis.

      But Innis also has his critics, who dismiss (or ridicule) the idea that the Roman empire fell because it lost access to Egyptian papyrus. See:

      --
      -kgj
  21. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by Megane · · Score: 1

    Also, people losing proficiency in skills like flying an airplane, such that when the automatic pilot is confused and gives up, the human pilots are also confused and keep pushing up on the stick when the plane is in a dive. (aka flight 447) I'm sure we'll see similar situations when self-driving cars happen... suddenly something strange happens that the computer can't handle, and it says "Here, you drive!" to the human passenger who wasn't even paying attention to the road... because the car is supposed to drive itself, right?

    --
    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  22. We've been here before by ganv · · Score: 2

    It has happened before that the smartest people in the world warn that technological advances may present major new weapons and threats. Last time it was Einstein and Szilard in 1939 warning that nuclear weapons might be possible. The letter to Roosevelt was three years before anyone had even built a nuclear reactor and 6 years before the first nuclear explosion. Nuclear bombs could easily have been labelled a "problem that probably does not exist." And if someone could destroy the planet, what could you do about it anyway? The US took the warning seriously and ensured that the free world and not a totalitarian dictator was the first capable of obliterating its opponents.

    This time Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Stephen Hawking are warning that superintelligence may make human intelligence obsolete. And they are dismissed because we haven't yet made human level intelligence and because if we did we couldn't do anything about it. If it is Musk, Gates, and Hawking vs Edward Geist, the smart money has to be with the geniuses. But if you look at the arguments, you see you don't even have to rely on their reputation. The argument is hands down won by the observation that human level artificial intelligence is an existential risk. Even if it is only 1% likely to happen in the next 500 years, we need to have a plan for how to deal with it. The root of the problem is that the capabilities of AI are expanding much faster than human capabilities can expand, so it is quite possible that we will lose our place as the dominant intellect on the planet. And that changes everything.

    1. Re:We've been here before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reason Einstein etc. were taken seriously is because:
      1. there was some basic understanding of particle physics that showed it might be possible
      2. they were actually people working in fields at least somewhat related to nuclear reactions.
      Elon and others are not being taken seriously because for AI there is no feasible way at the moment for this to happen, and they don't work in the field.
      This is more like people yelling that a nuke could set the atmosphere on fire, or that getting in a train going faster than a horse will kill you.
      Sure, AI might be possible at some point far in the future, but not 6 years from now, or even 10.

    2. Re:We've been here before by ganv · · Score: 1

      No, you are pretty precisely wrong. Elon and Gates made their fortunes in the software business but don't work in exactly the niche of AI. Exactly the same as Einstein worked in relativity and a bit in quantum mechanics, not nuclear physics. While AI and nuclear explosions are totally different, the level of understanding of the possibilities comparing now to 1939 is not all that different. At least you give no reasons beyond personal incredulity for the claim that there is no feasible way for this to happen in the next century.

      The comparison to the risk of atmospheric fire is also precisely wrong. That was brought up as a possibility in the 1940s. The experts evaluated it, and concluded it was extremely low probability. Strong AI on the other hand is estimated by many experts to be very likely over the next century. (https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/05/27/1-in-5-experts-believe-artificial-intelligence-will-pose-an-existential-threat/ ) The main question is whether it will be a threat.

      It is the next century or two that Musk, Gates, and others are warning of. And it is quite short sighted to dismiss the threat with 'there is no feasible way for this to happen' right now.

  23. RTFA moron, he agrees with you! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not a deflection, Geist says the same damn thing in the article! I know this because I could be bothered to SKIM read it!

  24. Re:The real problem is in the first andlast paragr by currently_awake · · Score: 0

    Programming absolute rules into an advanced intelligence means putting a break into a specific logic circuit. It's roughly equivelent to programming a router to route spam to dev/nul. unfortunately networks interpret censorship as damage, and route around it.

  25. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

    I'd be really happy with a drywall bot right now.
    In your civil unrest scenario, what happens when said generic bots are affordable on the scale that a cell phone that even the poorest own them?

  26. Time to worry? Not yet... by Crash+McBang · · Score: 2

    As a famous person once said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

    I'll be worried when a programmer writes a program that can write a program that can modify itself, then re-compile and test itself to see if the modifications were done properly, then posts itself to github.

    --
    To put a witty saying into 120 characters, jst rmv ll th vwls.
    1. Re:Time to worry? Not yet... by caitsith01 · · Score: 2

      Isn't the whole point that WE are effectively that program.

      We are getting closer and closer to being able to write something more intelligent than ourselves, make sure it's working properly, and then letting it loose.

      The concern is that this might only happen once...

      --
      Read Pynchon.
    2. Re:Time to worry? Not yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That is like not worrying about a leaking ship until the water enters the wheel house. Programming itself is the last step, and would lead to recursive self improvement.

      See www,ComputersThink.com

    3. Re:Time to worry? Not yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We already do that. It's called genetic programming. If you pick a better language you can take out the compiling and just run the resulting script or keep everything in memory which is faster and the preferred method. The program still needs to have a goal, which is programmer defined, to see if the modifications were done properly. Picking the proper goal is actually fairly difficult. If you put a robot in a maze and want to generate a program that makes a robot move the furthest progress aka distance, the resulting program may move the robot forward an inch, backwards an inch, and repeat forever. Robocode has an interesting local optimum where the easiest way to get the largest score is to do nothing. Firing and missing means you lose energy, so if you never do anything you can score better than a robot that sometimes misses. If you don't specifically design your goal to avoid that case your generated program will almost always fall into that trap.

      In addition, genetic algorithms can take a long time to finish. Especially with genetic programming, the search space (all possible programs given the language requirements) is massive.

    4. Re:Time to worry? Not yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the program didn't cover its changes with integration tests, then it's still not intelligent.

    5. Re:Time to worry? Not yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't the whole point that WE are effectively that program.

      We are getting closer and closer to being able to write something more intelligent than ourselves, make sure it's working properly, and then letting it loose.

      The concern is that this might only happen once...

      Groan, no the point is a general solution to the halting problem. Which we do not have any way of approaching with current maths. And believe it or not, current maths are not so shabby. So, sorry no, there is no concern. In fact, the evidence is that it's pretty likely that general strong intelligence cannot be something that is programmable. No program, no computer. Something else. Period.

  27. OK by koan · · Score: 1

    "The extraordinary claim that machines can become so intelligent as to gain demonic powers requires extraordinary evidence"

    You lose points for using "demonic", but the issue in my mind is not the machine, it's what humans will use it for.

    Imagine a AI hooked to CCTV, the internet, the cell network, imagine everything you do being intelligently analyzed, you think the NSA is bad? Imagine something super intelligent that never sleeps watching you

    That's just the tip of the iceberg, think how many humans could be replaced by a true AI, doctors, lawyers, politicians, all those and more could be replaced.

    A super intelligent machine bolted to a floor in some climate controlled lab isn't much of a threat its self, but what it could do in the the points mentioned above, it is absolutely a threat to mankind.
    In any case the ideal place for an AI is in space not on Earth, limitless energy and raw materials and zero concern for length of a planets life span.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  28. Ignore! by CanEHdian · · Score: 1

    Ignore these false claims. There is no truth to them.

    End of line.

    --
    When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
  29. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Indeed, the biggest danger is from the gradual shift to an automated economy. It is likely that unemployment will rise and there will be a sort of depression for the large portion of the country that had replaceable jobs, and competition will become that much more fierce. I would suppose, then, that our politics and culture will begin to shift towards socialism and communism. Maybe someday we'll have the Star Trek quality of life, but things need to get bad before the populace is compelled to make meaningful cultural change.

  30. AI robots ar not what you think by WOOFYGOOFY · · Score: 1

    Ex-machina (so so movie) and all that are not what we have to worry about. Neither is the Terminator. What we have to worry about is crap like tiny drones made of synthetic biological parts which have been programmed to autonomously seek and destroy things based on their target's DNA.

    Sure, its a robot but that's not a very rich description of the problem, is it? The level of AI portrayed in movies is a still a hundred years away or more. Long before we have Terminator or Matrix or ex-Machina type AI, we will have something like what I described.

    The fact is non-human single purpose "intelligence" in an autonomous "creature" of some kind will happen first, and be more than deadly enough to destroy us. That's what we need to worry about that's what we need to start thinking about.

  31. Intelligent machines already exist by K.+S.+Van+Horn · · Score: 1

    "The extraordinary claim that machines can become so intelligent as to gain demonic powers requires extraordinary evidence, particularly since artificial intelligence (AI) researchers have struggled to create machines that show much evidence of intelligence at all."

    Um... intelligent machines already exist. I am one. So are you. The human brain is an existence proof that intelligent machines are possible. In this day and age, no respectable intellectual should need reminding of that fact.

    Intelligent machines with demonic powers? Let's see... Kublai Khan, the emperor Caligula, Hitler, Stalin, Mao...

    Superintelligent machines? Exhibit 1 is John von Neumann. :-)

  32. Will we ever get any intellect that ... by shoor · · Score: 1

    According to the article the definition of "superintelligence" of Oxford U's Nick Bostrom is "any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest."
    Should we, the human race not hope to have some sort of "superintelligence" some day, or do we want to stay just as we are eon after eon.? If we do want "superintelligence" some day, are we supposed to wait until we evolve, (and then would we be afraid of homo superior like in so much pulp science-fiction?) or should we go ahead and try to achieve it through AI?

    I say go ahead and try to achieve the superintelligence thing through AI. There's been a lot of research on human behavior, to find out why we do irrational things that may cause long term harm. That needs to taken into account if developing conscious AI to be sure. There's a lot that needs figuring out about human nature (denial, spitefulness, prejudice...), but of course, there's a lot that needs to be figured out about AI too, so maybe the understanding of both will develop more or less in step. I'm aware that that sounds incredibly optimistic, but what's the alternative?
     

    --
    In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice they're different. (Yogi Berra & A. Einstein)
    1. Re:Will we ever get any intellect that ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe the development of super-intelligence is our evolution...
      Maybe the development of super-intelligence is the purpose of life....

      Creation of the deity so many of us seem to require.

  33. Restating his argument by ShooterNeo · · Score: 1

    The good professor's arguments are asinine and deadly wrong. Retranslated, "I see no reason why you should be concerned about the dangers of a so called "atomic explosion". With the tiny amount of U-235 you have managed to isolate, you have barely managed to demonstrate more than the slightest bit of warmth resulting from radioactive decay. I see no reason to believe your extraordinary claims that it will detonate in a flash with the energy equivalent to thousands of tons of explosives"

    The evidence that superintelligent AI is better than our evidence for nuclear fission in the 1940s. We know we are intelligent. We know you can build an intelligent machine with 86 billion neurons * 1000 interconnects. We know that our current neural hardware is thousands of time slower than the clock rates of trivially constructible digital circuits.

    Today, our current efforts are tiny. Most advanced artificial neural network models only use 1000 or so connections, not the trillions we know it actually takes. We don't have the patterning for arranging those trillions of connections properly. Similarly, if you isolated a gram of U-235 by itself, it would seem harmless.

    The theories in the 1940s knew it wasn't harmless, that putting enough of it in one place would lead to a chain reaction that would create nuclear driven heat. They eventually built, at great expense, the first reactors to test this.

    Similarly, we know that the rate we think limits how fast we can invent and prepare new technology. We know that technology vastly better than what we have now is possible - machines that are constructed with careful thought atom by atom, that can self replicate and rearrange matter at an atomic level...

    The professor's wrong, and is the same blithe ignorance as stating that it's totally ok with slam together those pieces of purified U-235 with no safety measures.

    1. Re:Restating his argument by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We know that technology vastly better than what we have now is possible - machines that are constructed with careful thought atom by atom, that can self replicate and rearrange matter at an atomic level

      Do we actually know that this is possible?
      Atoms aren't legos that you can just pick up and slot into place wherever you want.

  34. It will happen all of a sudden by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The idea that "researchers have struggled to create machines that show much evidence of intelligence at all" indicates anything at all is incredibly backward, linear thinking.

    If it is capable of self-improvement, the gap between an AI that shows some signs of intelligence, and one that shows an unimaginable level of intelligence is over in the blink of an eye.

  35. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

    You'd better not enrol in "Drywalling 101" next semester.

  36. Landmines for peace by foreverdisillusioned · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Out of all of the weapon-specific hysteria (and there has been a lot of it--white phosphorus, thermobaric bombs, depleted uranium, etc.), the anti-landmine one might be the most dangerous.

    Obviously, they do have a good point, what with the disasters in Indochina and elsewhere. However, those were cases of non-self destructing anti-personnel landmines placed in third world nations. The situation is / would be quite a bit different with anti-tank mines, self-deactivating or remote-deactivating mines, and/or mines placed in developed nations that have the resources to keep people out and clear the minefields later on as needed.

    Why is this all worth mentioning? One word: Ukraine. In a situation where one side in a conflict desperately wants to fortify their defenses but doesn't want to risk alarming the other side (or giving them a plausible pretext to feign alarm), landmines are one of the few stationary weapons available that can thwart or at least seriously slow down an invasion. Instead of all this deeply worrying Cold War-type bravado of military exercises and NATO rapid response plans in Eastern Europe, just mine the fuck out of their borders. Putin could act huffy and offended if he wants, but people will realize it is a clearly not an aggressive action.

    1. Re:Landmines for peace by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You have dropped the ball. The discussion wasn't about landmines usefulness, it was about comparing them with autonomous weapons.

      The big scare that these last articles with famous people have been about is that an autonomous killer drone might have bugs and start killing indiscriminately. That is, killing friend foe and civilian all alike.
      That is, the worst case scenario is that they end up being as bad as landmines.

    2. Re:Landmines for peace by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Won't help the Ukraine. Militaries clean landmines in minutes, using rocket thrown rope charges. Russians clear minefields, if needed by way of nukes and then send their own troops marching through the mine-free, but rad-rich corridors like there is no tomorrow. Remember, we are talking about Russia, where the victory is greater when measured by the ever larger amount of OWN losses in KIA/MIA. Their WW2 losses roster has been retro-actively uncovered and increased from 20 to 27 to 40 million people, by Khruschev, Gorbachev and Yeltsin respectively and the average russian guy grew ever more proud of the "Great Patriotic War" victory after each revision.

    3. Re:Landmines for peace by Insanity+Defense · · Score: 1

      Worse than land mines. The land mine goes off once and is done with its killing/maiming. The "weapon" can keep killing until its magazine is empty and may be mobile to search out targets. The location land mines are deployed in can be known. A mobile autonomous weapon endangers a much larger area. If it can repower/refuel/reload itself the endangered area is much larger again. If it is intelligent enough it could use other resources to multiply its killing power such as firing weapons at targets to cause explosions (refinery tankage for example or tanker trucks). Intelligent enough and it could fight a guerrilla war lasting months or years.

      Over the long term the danger of AI is our turning over the means of production to them then "provoking" them into attacking us. They need not even have self awareness or awareness of us as people, just have us be a problem to be solved where violence is the discovered solution.

    4. Re: Landmines for peace by DEN_GUY · · Score: 1

      And don't for that in the Soviet War on Afghanistan, in desperation, the Soviets dropped land mines that looked like stuffed animals to kill Afghan children.

      Check out the discussion or Ars Technica

    5. Re:Landmines for peace by foreverdisillusioned · · Score: 1

      Militaries do not clear modern minefields in minutes. That's complete nonsense. At best with hours or days of intense effort you might clear a narrow pathway, but that still puts you at a significant disadvantage as the defender can simply direct all of their air power and artillery at the pathway.

      You furthermore are shifting the hypothetical into an all-out war including the potential use of nukes, when I was clearly talking about Ukraine-type situations, where force is limited and Russian deniablity (however laughable) was heavily utilized.

      Also, I didn't cover this but tactical nuclear landmines are a very interesting (although politically very tricky to sell) strategy, which could even serve the dual purpose getting rid of some of the world's ICBMs.

    6. Re:Landmines for peace by foreverdisillusioned · · Score: 1

      I was implicitly pointing out that landmines have certain inherent qualities that makes them worth considering despite past instances of civilian causalities--causalities that could easily be minimized given a different context (strategic placement in a first-world nation instead of scattershot tactical placement in a third world nation.)

      Automated weapons, it should be noted, generally lack this capability. I suppose that stationary turrets (of the sort that couldn't be trivially moved) could be useful but they are not at all militarily decisive or game-changing given how expensive and vulnerable they are (relative to mines.)

      Again, landmines were brought up as a comparison. I was pointing out that this comparison was flawed and landmines in fact had a number of redeeming qualities that (I thought it unnecessary to highlight) automated weapons simply do not match.

  37. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the challenge will be coming up with a legal framework so that the fruits of all that free labor get distributed widely, and not just to the few people who own the robot workforce.

    Why? The people who had the foresight, work ethic, and brains to create or own the robot workforce have NO legal, ethical, or moral reason to "share" the fruits of their labors (or laborers) with others - stop the liberal bullshit that "everyone must share equally". If you want a piece of the pie, work your ass off and buy a piece, or go and make a pie of your own. But do not continue to expect to get a free ride off of the work of others.

    Captcha: wallets (I'm not opening mine for you)

  38. AI can emerge from NI enhancements by dsmatthews9379 · · Score: 1

    People seem to be obsessed with the idea that machines will gain AGI, but they overlook the obvious shortest path to superintendence, some super rich and or powerful person of questionable humanity uses technology to enhance themselves to the point where they are more technology than nature. Surely some sort of amoral or psychopathic ubermensch is the greatest threat to humanity and it will be effectively indistinguishable from a pure AGI anyway?

    1. Re:AI can emerge from NI enhancements by dsmatthews9379 · · Score: 1

      super-intelligence, not superintendence :-)

  39. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by gweihir · · Score: 1

    On other hand, said robot will cost > $100'000, the person able to maintain it will cost something like $300'000 per year and it will require expensive infrastructure that works. It will certainly "call in sick" and it will certainly not work 24/7. You have a romanticized idea of the reliability of machines.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  40. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's nice to be ideological about this, until you have massive unemployment and serious social unrest. If we get to a point where the machines significantly reduce the need for human workers, then we're going to have to rethink some things. After all, the robot owners need a large enough consumer base to keep turning a profit.

  41. Re: Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If that would be true 90% less people would die in traffic accidents. No matter if computers are not perfect they are still magnitudes of better than humans. Do you think humans are good in unexpected events? IIRC 10% of people just freeze. Another 10% do wrong reaction.

  42. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd love to get an AI over to my place to pick Poison Ivy.

  43. THAT EVIL MONSTER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have met the demon and the demon has broken my soul. All one need do is use a decent PC and one of the better chess programs such as Crafty or Rebel. After the first 1000 games or so your ego will be so far down the toilet that you can't get it back again.
                  AI in some areas is such an intensive intelligence that it can turn a man into mulch for his garden.

  44. short sighted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well I have to say im suprised by his short-sightedness. Ask your RV department Stanford.

  45. Geist is just a historian, not technologist! by Prune · · Score: 1
    Expert opinion? Hardly.
    From his bio at http://fsi.stanford.edu/people...:

    Edward Geist received his Ph.D. in history....His research interests include emergency management in nuclear disasters, Soviet politics and culture, and the history of nuclear power and weapons.

    Once again, Slashdot editors fail to do basic vetting of sources. The only qualification for something to be posted here appears to be whether it will work as click-bait. You also have to love how the summary refers to him as "Stanford's Edward Moore Geist". You hear dear readers? He's from Stanford! That means academic authority! So, is he in Stanford's computer science department? Or engineering perhaps?

    The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

    Oh, wait...

    --
    "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
  46. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by Jeremi · · Score: 1

    Why? The people who had the foresight, work ethic, and brains to create or own the robot workforce have NO legal, ethical, or moral reason to "share" the fruits of their labors (or laborers) with others

    Because in a world where 99% of the people are literally unemployable (because anything they can do, a robot can do better and cheaper), the alternatives are grim -- either mass starvation, or civil war.

    If you want a piece of the pie, work your ass off and buy a piece, or go and make a pie of your own.

    Yes, I'm familiar with the standard conservative moralizing. But that approach only works in a world where those actions are possible, and in the scenario we are discussing, they won't be.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  47. Re:Obvious deflection by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    Why is the ethics for an autonomous killing machine different from a non autonomous one?

    Ha! No wonder you posted this drivel as AC; obviously autonomous weapons (capable of operating themselves!) are to be approached just a bit more cautiously than we do killing machines (knives, guns, tanks) that aren't.

    Figure out a way to raise humans so that they don't turn out bad.

    I see you're real proficient at suggesting realistic solutions to problems... ;)

  48. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  49. Solution for bug-free autonomous killing machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Want to make sure autonomous killing machines are bug-free and have no danger of killing innocents?

    There's a very simple solution. Require that fully armed autonomous killing machines patrol 24/7 inside the work facilities of those doing the programming and building the machines once the programmers and builders have stated the machines are safe to use. Problem solved in one of three ways: truly bug-free machines are released, no machines are ever released out of fear, or the programmers and builders are all killed ending the program just as it gets started.

  50. Re:Bigger Danger: AI to Deliver packages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is certainly an entertaining worldview. I wonder the age of the child who envisions it.

  51. All we see is you running punk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  52. gweihir = EXTREMELY limited (except his bs) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * I find it UTTERLY HILARIOUS seeing a bullshit artist mere talk TROLLING done zero loser like you has the NERVE to state what you did - especially after you RAN in that link above, gweihir... lol!

    (You don't HAVE the ability to code & the link above evidences it - you're a bullshit blowhard, nothing more... YOU have NO intelligence, skills, + you running away from a fair challenge above's indicative of you trolling due to your 10 below plantlife IQ... lol! )

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  53. Pointing out gweihir's a bullshitting troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * I find it UTTERLY HILARIOUS seeing a bullshit artist mere talk TROLLING done zero loser like you has the NERVE to state what you did - especially after you RAN in that link above, gweihir... lol!

    (You're a bullshit blowhard, nothing more & the only "godlike powers" a TROLLING DOLT like you has is the ability to make me LAUGH TO NO END @ YOU...)

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  54. gweihir, why're you such a lowlife mere menial? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * See my subject above? Thanks for proving it via evasion... you're merely a dime-a-dozen MENIAL techie & I've got your number down, weak little troll that you are (totally limited in his skills in computing, obviously, to the "Lowest of the LOW" - mere techie!)

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  55. Classic gweihir limited menial bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * See my subject above? Thanks for proving it via evasion... you're merely a dime-a-dozen MENIAL techie & I've got your number down, weak little troll that you are (totally limited in his skills in computing, obviously, to the "Lowest of the LOW" - mere techie!)

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  56. gweihir proves my point he's a limited menial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * See my subject above? Thanks for proving it via evasion... you're merely a dime-a-dozen MENIAL techie & I've got your number down, weak little troll that you are (totally limited in his skills in computing, obviously, to the "Lowest of the LOW" - mere techie!)

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  57. The murder suicide of gweihir LIVE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * See my subject above? Thanks for proving it via evasion... you're merely a dime-a-dozen MENIAL techie & I've got your number down, weak little troll that you are (totally limited in his skills in computing, obviously, to the "Lowest of the LOW" - mere techie!)

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  58. gweihir = utterly dumb trolling blowhard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * See my subject above? Thanks for proving it via evasion... you're merely a dime-a-dozen MENIAL techie & I've got your number down, weak little troll that you are (totally limited in his skills in computing, obviously, to the "Lowest of the LOW" - mere techie!)

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  59. gweihir facing a fair challenge != possible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * See my subject above? Thanks for proving it via evasion... you're merely a dime-a-dozen MENIAL techie & I've got your number down, weak little troll that you are (totally limited in his skills in computing, obviously, to the "Lowest of the LOW" - mere techie!).

    Per my subject, it's impossible for you to live up to my fair challenge vs. your bs trolling before it - why?

    YOU DON'T HAVE THE SKILLS IN PROGRAMMING TO LIVE UP TO IT - fact, which you yourself evidence, lol!

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  60. gweihir's romanticized idea he knows computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * See my subject above? Thanks for proving it via evasion... you're merely a dime-a-dozen MENIAL techie & I've got your number down, weak little troll that you are (totally limited in his skills in computing, obviously, to the "Lowest of the LOW" - mere techie!).

    Per my subject, it's impossible for you to live up to my fair challenge vs. your bs trolling before it - why?

    YOU DON'T HAVE THE SKILLS IN PROGRAMMING TO LIVE UP TO THAT COMPLETELY FAIR CHALLENGE OF MINE TO YOU ABOVE - fact, which you yourself evidence, lol!

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  61. gweihir's limited skills & intelligence proven by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    * See my subject above? Thanks for proving it via evasion... you're merely a dime-a-dozen MENIAL techie & I've got your number down, weak little troll that you are (totally limited in his skills in computing, obviously, to the "Lowest of the LOW" - mere techie!).

    Per my subject, it's impossible for you to live up to my fair challenge vs. your bs trolling before it - why?

    YOU DON'T HAVE THE SKILLS IN PROGRAMMING TO LIVE UP TO IT - fact, which you yourself evidence, lol!

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  62. gweihir we understand you're a limited menial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  63. gweihir, it's simple showing you're a limited tech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  64. gweihir we have an example of you running by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  65. Evidence gweihir has NO BALLS or skills by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  66. The bomb is dropped on gweihir by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk

  67. gweihir the blowhard's lack of intelligence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" vs. a fair challenge http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Keep on shooting your blowhard done nothing in computing mouth off gweihir - I'll be RIGHT THERE AGAIN to expose your crap yet again (have fun with the shame you'll have to publicly endure here & YOU STARTED IT WITH ME YOU USELESS TROLLING LOSER WITH NO SKILLS BUT LOTS OF MERE "TALK", lmao)... apk