# Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind



## Paco Dennis (Nov 15, 2021)

_*"Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence.*
He told the BBC:"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."
His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of the technology he uses to communicate, which involves a basic form of AI.
But others are less gloomy about AI's prospects.
The theoretical physicist, who has the motor neurone disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is using a new system developed by Intel to speak.
Machine learning experts from the British company Swiftkey were also involved in its creation. Their technology, already employed as a smartphone keyboard app, learns how the professor thinks and suggests the words he might want to use next.

Prof Hawking says the primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed so far have already proved very useful, but he fears the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans.






"It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," he said.

"Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."
But others are less pessimistic.
"I believe we will remain in charge of the technology for a decently long time and the potential of it to solve many of the world problems will be realised," said Rollo Carpenter, creator of Cleverbot.
Cleverbot's software learns from its past conversations, and has gained high scores in the Turing test, fooling a high proportion of people into believing they are talking to a human.
_
_Rise of the robots_​_Mr Carpenter says we are a long way from having the computing power or developing the algorithms needed to achieve full artificial intelligence, but believes it will come in the next few decades.
"We cannot quite know what will happen if a machine exceeds our own intelligence, so we can't know if we'll be infinitely helped by it, or ignored by it and sidelined, or conceivably destroyed by it," he says.
But he is betting that AI is going to be a positive force.
Prof Hawking is not alone in fearing for the future.
In the short term, there are concerns that clever machines capable of undertaking tasks done by humans until now will swiftly destroy millions of jobs.

In the longer term, the technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has warned that AI is "our biggest existential threat".
_
_Robotic voice_​_In his BBC interview, Prof Hawking also talks of the benefits and dangers of the internet.
He quotes the director of GCHQ's warning about the net becoming the command centre for terrorists: "More must be done by the internet companies to counter the threat, but the difficulty is to do this without sacrificing freedom and privacy."
He has, however, been an enthusiastic early adopter of all kinds of communication technologies and is looking forward to being able to write much faster with his new system.

But one aspect of his own tech -  his computer generated voice - has not changed in the latest update.
Prof Hawking concedes that it's slightly robotic, but insists he didn't want a more natural voice.
"It has become my trademark, and I wouldn't change it for a more natural voice with a British accent," he said.
"I'm told that children who need a computer voice, want one like mine.""_

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540


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## rgp (Nov 15, 2021)

Oh I think it'll take a while....a longer 'while' than I have left.


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## GeorgiaXplant (Nov 15, 2021)

Welllll...considering that Stephen Hawking died almost three years ago and that Rollo Carpenter, creator of Cleverbot said _"I believe we will remain in charge of the technology for a _*decently long time*_ and the potential of it to solve many of the world problems will be realised", _we're probably safe for the time being


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## fmdog44 (Nov 19, 2021)

The point is it is just a matter of time.


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## Tish (Nov 19, 2021)

I remember years ago reading Asimov's I robot and caves of steel thinking to myself, well yes there is the possibility of AI taking over.
Years later I read Deamon Seed by Dean Koontz and found it to be hilarious.
These days although we don't have moving sidewalks like The Jetsons, I am starting to believe it's a case of when rather than if.
​


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## officerripley (Nov 19, 2021)

Makes sense; the most dangerous things seem to be things that humans invent.


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## Packerjohn (Nov 19, 2021)

The world as we know it is definitely doomed.  We have polluted the planet, killed off most of the animals, fought wars and suffered many pandemic.  Today there are just too many people.  We are wasting our time by trying to become all inclusive but the global warming will do us in, in the end.  I base this on wild life.  There very few rabbits, they multiple and then there are too many rabbits.  Then some disease comes around and nearly kills all the rabbits, except a few.  The cycle is 7 years.  The same for many other animals.  We may pretend that we "know it all" but our rule on this planet is coming to an end.  I'm not sure when this will happen but it will.


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## officerripley (Nov 19, 2021)

Packerjohn said:


> The world as we know it is definitely doomed.  We have polluted the planet, killed off most of the animals, fought wars and suffered many pandemic.  Today there are just too many people.  We are wasting our time by trying to become all inclusive but the global warming will do us in, in the end.  I base this on wide life.  There very few rabbits, they multiple and then there are too many rabbits.  Then some disease comes around and nearly kills all the rabbits, except a few.  The cycle is 7 years.  The same for many other animals.  We may pretend that we "know it all" but our rule on this planet is coming to an end.  I'm not sure when this will happen but it will.


I too think it'll happen unfortunately. We wouldn't be the first species to go extinct but I think we might be the first to take all or most of the others with us when we go (except maybe the cockroaches?). Sad, anyway.


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## Don M. (Nov 19, 2021)

The Real danger involving AI might be the "obsolesce" of Human Labor.  As automation and robotics advances, more and more jobs will be lost to "machines".  This, coupled with increasing populations, will put billions of people at the risk of being unable to support themselves.  Poverty and hunger might well become the "norm".


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## OneEyedDiva (Nov 20, 2021)

There's more discussion about AI in the thread linked below. My reply is on the first page where I mentioned that Hawking, Elon Musk and Bill Gates gave a warning about AI and that I'd seen a documentary that lists AI as one of the possible causes of the apocalypse for mankind.
https://www.seniorforums.com/threads/ai-super-artificial-intelligence-in-our-lifetimes.65656/


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## Packerjohn (Nov 20, 2021)

Don M. said:


> The Real danger involving AI might be the "obsolesce" of Human Labor.  As automation and robotics advances, more and more jobs will be lost to "machines".  This, coupled with increasing populations, will put billions of people at the risk of being unable to support themselves.  Poverty and hunger might well become the "norm".


Right you are Don.  About 2 weeks ago I walked into a Dollar Store and sure got a surprise.  Instead of 2 or 3 working at the check out counter there were 6 self-serve machines and 1 young lady "hanging around" in case some old timers (like me) can't figure out what to do.  What is the point of those 2,000 refugees trying to cross the Polish border to find work and a new life when the jobs are all going to machines.  We are "shooting ourselves in the foot" and I'm afraid that we are so in love with technology that we don't know where we are going!


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## officerripley (Nov 20, 2021)

Reminds me of a science fiction story I read, think it came out about 15 or 20 years ago: it's way in the future and humans have settled on some other worlds in addition to Earth. Earth and each of the other planets have just finished building a super-duper, true AI on each planet and hook all the AIs up to each other. The head scientist in charge of the project flips the switch turning on and connecting all the AIs and to test this powerful combo of AIs, asks it a question, a question that humans have been asking since they began: "Is there a god?" The AI responds, "There is now."


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