A serial artificial intelligence investor is raising alarm bells about the dogged pursuit of increasingly-smart machines, which he believes may soon advance to the degree of divinity.
In an op-ed for the Financial Times, AI mega-investor Ian Hogarth recalled a recent anecdote in which a machine learning researcher with whom he was acquainted told him that "from now onwards," we are on the brink of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) — an admission that came as something of a shock.
"This is not a universal view," Hogarth wrote, noting that "estimates range from a decade to half a century or more" before AGI comes to fruition.
All the same, there exists a tension between the explicitly AGI-seeking goals of AI companies and the fears of machine learning experts — not to mention the public — who understand the concept.
"'If you think we could be close to something potentially so dangerous,' I said to the researcher, 'shouldn’t you warn people about what’s happening?'" the investor recounted. "He was clearly grappling with the responsibility he faced but, like many in the field, seemed pulled along by the rapidity of progress."
Like many other parents, Hogarth said that after this encounter, his mind drifted to his four-year-old son.
"As I considered the world he might grow up in, I gradually shifted from shock to anger," he wrote. "It felt deeply wrong that consequential decisions potentially affecting every life on Earth could be made by a small group of private companies without democratic oversight." READ MORE...
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