Stephen Hawking’s love/hate relationship with AI
With the passing of Stephen Hawking, the world lost one of its most potent voices in the field of physics. Hawking is regarded as one of the coolest scientists in history, known for his study on the origins of our universe. His theories about black holes and the Big Bang broke into pop culture and made a difference in the way we perceive physics. But it was the way that Hawking talked about artificial intelligence that should be the focus of today’s publication. His view on the subject was highly controversial and one might even call it a love/hate relationship.
One might remember a pretty popular soundbite in which Hawking offers his concern about the future of AI. He prominently said: “ (AI) could spell the end of the human race.” But the decontextualised snippet is only one of his many thoughts and views on the subject.
For one he seemed more concerned with the way humans handle their creation. His worries revolved around machines being programmed to be destructive for mankind out of greed. He also saw the potential threats of AI systems which could not only replicate human intelligence processes, but also keep expanding them, without our support . This domain has been quite popular in science fiction as well and often a subject of debate of many dystopian novels. Yet the actual reality of such an event ever taking place is far far away. For Hawking himself life without AI would not have been possible. His destiny came to be unbreakable linked to an artificial intelligence setup which allowed him to express his most candid ideas.
Is it going to blow up in our faces?
AI is linked to its creators. And as humans we are not always known for making noble decisions. Even today’s AI stage raises its first ethical or practical questions. For one there are a lot of badly written programs which, as we wrote before, can be colour-blind and carry a pretty racist undertone. The way AI is coded can be pretty opaque, with cryptic, hard to decipher algorithms, that make decisions hard to trace and understand. There is a global alarm-bell constantly sounding for AI taking over workforce or making human labor obsolete. At Stanford University, a study focusing on AI identified no evidence that it might pose an imminent threat to humanity.
But let us get back to Hawking’s views. If one pays attention to his findings and concerns, it becomes rather self-evident, that his tone wasn’t alarmist and pretty balanced when it comes to machine intelligence. His ideas illustrate humanities need to regulate emerging tech. After all it was also Hawking who believed that Super AI might help us eradicate war, famine and poverty altogether if used and aided correctly.
It is precisely this contradiction in views which we call love/hate relationship, that is so fascinating.
Hawking’s personal destiny was tightly linked to an artificial intelligence companion system. A number of communications systems helped him speak and write, with one program sticking out in particular. Intel prominently sponsored his setup which was operated by one muscle in his cheek. At first the program running was slow and buggy, but AI expertly changed that by analysing Hawking’s words and language usage to give him hints on new ideas. The system got so good because it sampled all of Hawking’s ideas and books, which eventually led it to compiling its own search engine tailor-made for his needs.
Hawking’s personal experience is a valid testimonial of how AI can enrich and improve people’s lives.
AI improves people’s health
Stephen Hawking’s experience with such a basic form of AI illustrates how non-superhuman AI can indeed change people’s lives for the better. Speech prediction helped him cope with a devastating neurological disease. Other AI-based systems are already helping prevent, fight and lessen the burden of disease.
Finally, when Hawking partook in Reddit’s Ask me Anything Q/A, he prominently stated:
“We should shift the goal of AI from creating pure undirected artificial intelligence to creating beneficial intelligence. It might take decades to figure out how to do this, so let’s start researching this today rather than the night before the first strong AI is switched on.”
As a result of the vivid conversation with fellow physicists on the subject, Hawking then retracted his initial view of doomsday and into a more nuanced approach and stated:
“Media often misrepresent what is actually said. The real risk with AI isn’t malice but competence. A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.(…)Please encourage your students to think not only about how to create AI, but also about how to ensure its beneficial use.”
Ultimately, we are the architects of our own future and with every great discovery comes the great burden of responsibility. The very humane message Mister Hawking left us, should be a reminder of that.
