De Kai, a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Hong Kong University, and a member of Google’s 2019 Advanced Technology External Advisory Council (ATEAC), recently stated that we should be wary of Artificial Intelligence because it’s unlike anything we’ve dealt with before. He also said that in order to deal with AI, human culture needs to be altered and we “need to grow up as a species”.
In the interview De Kai said:
“We are near an era when people can easily produce weapons such as fleets of armed AI drones.”
Referring to claims that AI represents the fourth industrial revolution, he remarked:
“AI is not the fourth of anything. It is the first. It’s always comforting to say we’ve seen things like this happening before and we know how to tackle this by drawing lessons from history – absolutely we need to draw lessons from history as much as we can – but we also need to recognise that what we are facing now has no precedent. … [O]ur priority is to alter human culture. We need to grow up as a species.”
De Kai is far from the first person who has warned against the growing maturity of artificial intelligence. Elon Musk issued a warning against the technology in 2017, and the physicist Stephen Hawking issued several warnings over the years. With him being on the ATEAC, however, De Kai is in a unique position to influence one of the leaders in the field of artificial intelligence.
Google is yet to comment on the remarks made by De Kai in the interview which took place earlier on in the week, but hopefully, it’ll take them into consideration.
Source: SCMP