There are a lot of stories circulating about artificial intelligence and robots. Big names like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk warn about the dangers. Both AI and robots have been around for a while. Not much of the new technology is actually new, it is really just repackaged with new names. A common marketing tactic.  But is AI and robots really finally taking off or is it mostly just hype? 

A Lot of it is just hype but major players like Facebook, Google, and Baidu have stepped up and gotten more involved with technology. But the biggest reason for it taking off is bad press. Fear and hate sells “papers” and marketers who are smart already know this. Take Donald Trump for example a lot of the news coverage is about the things he has said that are offensive. AI is no different. The biggest reason for its increase in interest is the bad press.  Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk did not hurt the field at all by pointing out its problems in fact they actually kick started it into high gear.

Well since chatbots may be the ones doing the negative/hyped reporting in the future then they will have no one to blame except themselves.

China Replaced Weather Reporter with Chatbot

At least if the weather is bad they can delete the messenger.

Haha Alaric. That is funny.

Human beings love drama. I think the AI revolution (I mean AI becoming more prevalent not like a take over) will happen in much more subtle ways, and is already happening. If I say to a friend on my cell phone that I need a new dentist and the next time I look at my phone, it is displaying “choose a dentist” sites…am I creeped out? A little. But the next generation won’t even bat an eyelash. They will just say “Thank RoboGod we have this helpful technology!”

And I think that SF authors and film producers really lack a lot of imagination when imagining the first humanoid AI’s. I mean really. We people in the future suddenly get a robotic household assistant and they don’t even so much as have a roomba before hand? In my imagined future the people who are bringing home their first android maid will have old out dated precursors sitting around in broom closets the way I have my old blackberry stashed in a drawer.

Fear of AI a bad thing? - Yes.

I see Musk and Hawking have won the Luddite award for their alarmist behaviour. Hopefully, that will put an end to this nonsense. http://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-stephen-hawking-win-annual-luddite-award/

I noticed when Mitsuku and Rose appeared in Die Zeit last week, what image accompanied the article? Yep, Terminator…
http://www.zeit.de/2016/03/kuenstliche-intelligenz-bots-gespraech

AI is not dangerous in the hands of scientists and people. It only does what it is programmed to do. However recent stories that are now coming out (from very reputable news sources) are showing that the 3 major governments USA, Russia and China are already developing autonomous robotic weapons. I think it is time we start calling a stop to it.

I originally wrote this as a “tongue in cheek” piece. However the news alerts are starting to worry me. When the military gets involved it is never a good thing.

Robots can’t even use a doorknob and can barely recognise pictures of cats. They are not going to be able to differentiate between a terrorist holding a gun and a child holding an umbrella. They will not become autonomous in our lifetime and I see no need to be worried.

Steve the military has always been at the forefront of technology and science. They are always two steps ahead of everyone else. These are not the fluffy fun little robots and chatbots we are used to. Robots do not need to look like humans. When they are on wheels and don’t need hands like we do they are very capable of a lot of things including shooting guns.

The fact that stories are just now showing up about military’s involvement means that they have already been doing it for years and we are just now finding out. A tank with a AI brain could do a lot of damage. We already have drones that kill people.  Drones are basically flying robots.

I’ve seen the DARPA challenges last year and believe me after watching these state of the art robots falling over and being confused by closed doors, we have nothing to fear.

Those are robots on legs. Robots that use wheels are very stable.

Sheryl Clyde (#2) - Jan 22, 2016:

We already have drones that kill people.  Drones are basically flying robots.

...controlled by people. The drones don’t decide by themselves what to target. It’s the human operator.

Sheryl Clyde (#2) - Jan 22, 2016:

Those are robots on legs. Robots that use wheels are very stable.

Then to escape one, I will merely run up a flight of stairs

Believe what you will steve. I am sorry but when top scientists from all over the world start calling for rules and regulations on robots and AI it is time to pay attention.

Steve Worswick - Jan 22, 2016:

Sheryl Clyde (#2) - Jan 22, 2016:

Those are robots on legs. Robots that use wheels are very stable.

Then to escape one, I will merely run up a flight of stairs

Running up stairs wont help if they blow up the whole building.

How will these autonomous Terminator-esque machines decide and be able to choose their targets when they can barely recognise items in pictures? They must be human controlled.

As for the scientists, I guess we are back to Hawking who has recently been ridiculed for such alarmist views.

I don’t wish to cause an argument and respect your decision to believe in this thing but to me it is so far into the future, it’s like worrying about teleportation devices malfunctioning. It won’t affect anyone in our lifetime (if at all)

I saw a documentary on drones on Netflix recently. They claim that for the time being weaponized drones will continue to be a mix of autonomy and human controlled. Remember even a human flown jet fighter has a certain autonomous component—i.e. autopilot LOL. Now if they are actually developing completely autonomous weaponized drones, who can really say. It sounds like something that would be a governments wet dream, but just because it sounds plausible doesn’t make it fact.

And besides an autonomous drone in today’s world is still programmed by people. Just giving a drone autonomy and weapons doesn’t make it the Terminator. There is a vast gulf of sophistication there. The autonomous drones of today, still rely on people to program them. Mitsuku is a fairly autonomous AI, but she still relies on the program that Steve wrote. Even if Steve gave her missiles she could deploy, she would only deploy them as per her programming. She isn’t going to suddenly get it in her head to track down Sara Connor.

Slight tangent. If you really want to see a mind bending AI movie that shows a more true to life evil than the Terminator, watch “Uncanny”. Its on Netflix in the US. I wont say more because its so awful if I spoil it.