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We see movies, such as The Terminator, Chappie, I, Robot, The Matrix, etc… and most people generally think, “Wow, this movie is really cool and the action is amazing!” However, those people don’t evaluate the fact that these movies are presaging the future. Well, at least I know I don’t do that after watching a movie. In these movies, the future of artificial intelligence is either portrayed as robots taking over the world, or cyborgs saving the world, which allows me to bring up the application and controversy of artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is glorified because computer systems can obtain an exceeding level of intelligence, which has many benefits. It can take what’s currently tedious and turn it into something effortless. For example, artificial intelligence is seeking to use algorithms to quickly identify diseases and provide an efficient course of treatment for patients, in hope to reduce the dreadful outcomes. Currently, these steps have already been put into action. According to [|www.ibm.com], IBM Watson, a “supercomputer” that uses AI, has launched a special program for oncology that assists in identifying “key information” which enables the ability to “explore treatment options to reduce unwanted care”, so time is not being wasted. Not only will artificial intelligence be beneficial for the medical field, artificial intelligence will be able to do practically anything. So far, Al programs such as Siri have been serving us as personal assistants, cars have been equipped with the ability to be put on autopilot, and articles have been written by AI programs, but these applications of artificial intelligence are just the baby steps to creating an all encompassing digital era.

Now, I could go on and talk about the basic concerns of artificial intelligence, like unemployment, but let’s be real, those basic concerns don’t phase me as much as the potential of artificial intelligence does. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for artificial intelligence, well most of it, and I 100% agree that it will be beneficial, but I am afraid of the possibility of technological singularity. I don’t want to live in an America where artificial intelligence will be able to transcend human cognitive abilities because such abilities will allow systems with AI to modify their own software to make them even more intelligent, rather than solely doing what they have been programmed to do. This means these machines could either continue to progress its intelligence, through introspection, or they could create a more intelligent machine, leading to a superintelligence explosion, which is the general hypothesis of technological singularity. An engineer, Ray Kurzweil, believes that this intelligence explosion will create a “beautiful new era” and Kurzweil idealizes the possibility of being able to “upload [human] consciousness into an immortal digital form”. On the other hand, there are people like philosopher Nick Bostrom who believes that “when we create the first superintelligent entity, we might make a mistake and give it goals that lead it to annihilate humankind”, essentially making the movie, The Terminator, a reality.

I am stuck in between Kurzweil’s and Bostrom’s opinions. I agree with Kurzweil that AI can create a “beautiful new era”, and I also side with Bostrom’s belief that AI can turn into something detrimental. I don’t want to live in a world where cyborgs, or “superhumans” are roaming around the streets. I surprisingly do not want to live in an a world where robots are serving our food, doing our laundry, or doing what we do not want to do because frankly, I do not want to live under the fear that these machines could turn against us. So yes, I undoubtedly believe that robots will be able to “take over” the world. I know some of you might be thinking “HA, this girl is ridiculous, that could never happen” and I know some of the more accepting people are thinking “Living in a world with human-like robots would be cool, but I don’t think they’ll annihilate humankind”; think what you want about my views on AI, this is just my fear.

AI researcher Marvin Minsky believed that profuse testing will be able to avert the uprise of robots, but as cliche as this sounds, you never know what could happen. I know that I can’t change what doesn’t exist but in decades to come, if the AI field continues to progress in programming machines to have human characteristics, that’s what I’d want to change. I do not want to be timid of the world that I am living in, because what is the point in living if you are constantly living in fear. I want to grow old in an America where artificial intelligence is able to solve puzzles that are currently a mystery to mankind, not where artificial intelligence becomes the problem. I want to grow old in an America that uses artificial intelligence to assist in broadening human intelligence, not in a world where AI dominates human intelligence. I don’t want to live in one of those science fiction movies. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. I want to grow old in an America where artificial intelligence does not turn out to be evil spawns that we would have to prevent from taking over the world.