WIRED magazine published: A talk about “the future prospect of AI and the role of Blockchain” between Couger CEO Atsushi Ishii and SingularityNet CEO Ben Goertzel
“Future of technology and humanity” as envisioned by Ludens(Couger’s Virtual Human Agent (VHA) technology solution) was published in WIRED’s special feature — “Mirror World”.
Ben Goertzel — creator of the famous Android robot “Sofia”, author of numerous papers about AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), and a globally renowned authority on AI technology joined a conversation with Atsushi Ishii (Couger CEO) for WIRED magazine. The two explored many different aspects of developing technologies and their implications for the future of our societies.
The theme of WIRED volume 33 was “Welcome to Mirror World — Digital Twins”. Thanks to the IT revolution, digitization has advanced tremendously, and we can easily imagine and actualize the process of making a digital copy, or twin, of our physical world and the objects in it. Soon, the world that was once limited to only the digital space will blend into various aspects of the real world, causing the boundary between online and offline to disappear. The AR game Pokemon GO can be seen as an early example of this development.
For the Mirror World to become an actuality, it needs other technologies. Primarily, the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with capabilities exceeding that of humans, which will ultimately act as the brain of automation, and a secure control architecture to safely operate this AI.
The Importance of Decentralisation
Both SingularityNet and Couger advocate decentralized approaches to technology development. For Couger’s Ludens project, which aims to develop VHAs as the cornerstone of the future of human-technology interaction, this includes an open marketplace for developing and distributing solutions. Couger is also looking to leverage the power of decentralization when it comes to further developing its human-like AI systems. It’s an approach that stands in stark contrast to the highly centralized silos for data and solutions favoured by many of the world’s biggest technology companies.
“Google’s search engine is the world’s largest centralized search engine, but I want to develop a decentralized search engine, which I think would be of great value to people around the world. I believe that current search engines are too centralized,” said Couger CEO Atsushi Ishii.
One of the negative consequences of centralized platforms like Google’s search engine is that individuals, companies, and organizations try to ‘hack’ Google’s algorithms in order to feature towards the top of search rankings. In other words, SEO becomes more important than generating value by providing information. In some ways, it could be argued that Google’s reach and power over what people find during searches can lead to misinformation instead of enlightenment. While Google continues to update its algorithms to solve these problems, the reality is that structural limitations still remain.
In the coming Mirror World, such problems could become explosively worse. What, for example, would the consequences be if a non-existent human fabricated by AI begins to autonomously mass-produced fake news? It may sound like far-off science fiction, but we have already started to see such problems appear in the form of deep-fakes.
Explainable AI ”XAI “ and the world of the Blockchain
The next-generation AI systems needed for the Mirror World are close to becoming a reality, thanks to the advancement of AI technology. Ludens is aimed at creating a combined world of AI and humans by developing a Virtual Human Agent (VHA) that has human-like features.
“What is the direction of AI and what kind of role will Blockchain play towards it” was also discussed between the CEOs of Couger/Ludens and SingularityNET — both of which are integrating AI and Blockchain technology.
A core issue that the rapid development of AI leads to is that there is a ‘trust vacuum.’ We don’t have any way of accurately gauging the precision of AIs because we don’t know what data they are being fed. As a consequence, we have little to no reason to trust the results they give us. Blockchain provides a solution to this issue while simultaneously making it easier for users to maintain control over their data and understand how various companies and organizations are using said data.
WIRED talk
(Part One) General-purpose distributed AI will create the Mirror World of the future: A talk between Ben Goertzel and Atsushi Ishii
https://wired.jp/2019/06/15/ben-goertzel-atsushi-ishii-1/
(Part Two) Humans will soon become a part of the distributed AI network: A talk between Ben Goertzel and Atsushi Ishii
https://wired.jp/2019/06/16/ben-goertzel-atsushi-ishii-2/
(Part Three) Future earth will be a park managed by machines: A talk between Ben Goertzel and Atsushi Ishii
https://wired.jp/2019/06/17/ben-goertzel-atsushi-ishii-3/
# Additional References
Age of “Machine Internet” is coming
https://wired.jp/2019/02/09/machine-internet-en/
WIRED Volume 33 “Mirror World”
