Will humanity perish in a Robocalypse, yay or nay?

The one where self-driving cars are compared to a household appliance

Geir Freysson
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read

The planet’s 5th and 80th richest men argue about artificial intelligence. First, Mark Zuckerberg calls Elon Musk “pretty irresponsible” for warning people about the impending rise of the robots.

Musk replies:

Burn.

So, who’s right? Are we like a collective Dr. Frankenstein creating a monster that will ultimately bring on our Robocalyptic demise? Or will our creation elevate us to the next level of humanity?

In his book The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver does a great job of destroying Chris Anderson’s 2008 prediction in Wired that scientific theories and models will become “obsolete” because of Big Data.

“Numbers have no way of speaking for themselves…. Data-driven predictions can succeed — and they can fail. It is when we deny our role in the process that the odds of failure rise.”

This sentiment also rings true about the current state of machine learning. Machines are extending human capabilities and in some cases replacing them – but they’re nowhere close to replacing the human judgement call.

The self driving car for example, isn’t showing “intelligence” as it navigates the city streets and gets you home from a late night booze session. It’s better described as a very advanced dishwasher. It excels at a very domain specific, routine task but you’re going to have to wait a very long time for it to form an opinion on Donald Trump and rant about it endlessly, making you wish it would shut the hell up and just drive.

So, I agree with Zuckerberg. Bring on the robo-revolution.

Geir’s blog

From Iceland, live in London, run a startup.

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