Artificial Intelligence

Our Final Invention author James Barrat recently gave a talk about how the pursuit of advanced artificial intelligence challenges humanity's existence with machines that won't love or hate humans, but whose indifference could spell our doom.

Documentary film maker and author of Our Final Invention, James Barrat recently gave a lecture (above) titled, "The Question of Our Time: Can We Share Our World with Smarter-than-Human Machines?" at his Alma Mater.

The talk covers "the development of AI, what researchers are doing wrong, and where they are headed if they don't start making changes in plans now."  Barrat says, "I sincerely believe this is the most important conversation we can be having at this point in history."

Barrat has written and directed films on Afghanistan, the lost gospels, ancient tombs and great castles for National Geographic, PBS, Discovery Channel and other broadcasters in the United States and Europe.

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In Our Final Invention, he explores how the pursuit of advanced artificial intelligence challenges humanity's existence with machines that won't love or hate humans, but whose indifference could spell our doom.

Barrat recently appeared on "CBS This Morning" with writer Gary Marcus, of "The New Yorker," and in an in-depth interview on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "Lang and O'Leary Exchange."

"Morally, do we want to introduce these machines into the world? Because, once they exist, you can't take them back."

Our Final Invention also has been featured by numerous national and international media outlets. For the latest reports.

"As a culture we're entering a period of unease about technology," Barrat said. "We live in environments where computers are everywhere, and we're never apart from them. They're in our houses, our cars, our smartphones. We're beginning to see how that compromises things like our attention, privacy and safety.

"I think that's why my book ‘Our Final Invention' has been well received by the public and by technologists," he noted. "Ethical debates about high tech are everywhere."

As an example, Barrat cited current arguments about the development of autonomous killer drones and battlefield robots. "Those are killing machines that make the decision to kill without humans in the loop. Morally, do we want to introduce these machines into the world? Because, once they exist, you can't take them back."

The ongoing National Security Agency (NSA) scandal also is about artificial intelligence, Barrat said. "The NSA developed powerful data mining tools, and nothing could stop them from using them on Americans-not common sense, not the Constitution. Data mining is AI."

"We're all taking a closer look at AI because it's not so futuristic anymore," Barrat said.

"My book won't make anyone feel better about the challenges ahead," the author noted. "One review said if you read this book you won't need coffee this week. It's a wake-up call about the most difficult technological struggle we'll face-the development of advanced AI."

Despite his reservations about AI, Barrat is enthusiastic about his next documentary, which harkens back to ancient times–with robots.

"I'm making an archeology film for National Geographic, a nice break from AI," he said. "But ironically, I'm taking three little robots to Sudan. They'll explore a Kush-era pyramid–about 700 B.C.–to find the best way for excavators to get into the king's burial chamber. The robots will see the king before we do."

SOURCE  Davidson College

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The upcoming science fiction movie Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp looks to examine how uploading may pose a great existential threat to human life.

The new trailer for Transcendence reveals that uploading  a brain may be fraught with danger. In a scenario akin to James Barrat's Busy Child scenario, an uploaded super-intelligent entity wants to get out of the box, and onto the internet.

In Transcendence Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is the foremost researcher in the field of artificial intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions.  His highly controversial experiments have made him famous, but they have also made him the prime target of anti-technology extremists who will do whatever it takes to stop him.

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However, in their attempt to destroy Will, they inadvertently become the catalyst for him to succeed—to be a participant in his own transcendence.  For his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), both fellow researchers, the question is not if they can…but if they should.

Their worst fears are realized as Will’s thirst for knowledge evolves into a seemingly omnipresent quest for power, to what end is unknown.  The only thing that is becoming terrifyingly clear is there may be no way to stop him.

Transcendence will open in theaters on April 18th.

SOURCE  Transcendence

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 Artificial Intelligence  

Recently on CBS This morning, author of Our Final Invention, James Barrat and New Yorker contributor Gary Marcus discussed some of the potential threats of artificial intelligence.

James Barrat author of a new book, Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era€and Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist at New York University who blogs about artificial intelligence for The New Yorker, joined CBS This Morning recently to discuss the reality of the research.

In Our Final Invention, Barrat looks in depth at what can go wrong with the development and application of advanced AI.  Examining AI's catastrophic downside, the book looks at research at Google, Apple, IBM, and DARPA.

Along with Barrat, Marcus notes that the development of artificial intelligence is growing into the most important conversation of our time.

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Marcus, in a few articles recently however has pointed out that, while AI developments are impressive and the threat of super-human intelligence is a great threat, the current status of the field does not match up to the media hype.  Quoting Yann Le Cun, who was just appointed to run Facebook’s new A.I. lab, who wrote in a kind of open letter to the media, “AI [has] ‘died’ about four times in five decades because of hype: people made wild claims (often to impress potential investors or funding agencies) and could not deliver. Backlash ensued. It happened twice with neural nets already: once in the late 60’s and again in the mid-90’s.”

In the discussion above, much of AI's current shortcomings revolve around the lack of common sense algorithms and the failures of Big Data to resolve some of what Marcus calls "Long Tail" problems.

According to Marcus, "Overhyped stories about new technologies create short-term enthusiasm, but they also often lead to long-term disappointment." That said, when reviewing Our Final Invention, he also wrote, " the only real difference between enthusiasts and skeptics is a time frame."

What do you think?  Is artificial general intelligence close to reality, or still a product of the far future or just plain science fiction?


SOURCE  CBS News

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 Artificial Intelligence  

Recently author and film maker James Barrat sat down to chat with Singularity 1 on 1's Nikola Danaylov about his new book, Our Final Invention.

James Barrat has made documentary films for National Geographic, the BBC, Discovery Channel, History Channel and public television.

Barrat also scripted many episodes of the award-winning Explorer series, and went on to produce one-hour and half-hour films for the NGC’s Treasure Seekers, Out There, Snake Wranglers, and Taboo series. In 2004 Barrat created the pilot for History Channel’s #1-rated original series Digging for the Truth. His high-rating film Lost Treasures of Afghanistan, created for National Geographic Television Specials, aired on PBS in the spring of 2005.

Thirteen years ago, while filming an interview with Arthur C. Clarke about the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barrat’s views on artificial intelligence, were changed.

Prior to that moment, Barrat had been enthusiastic about AI and the prospects for artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial super-intelligence (ASI).  It was Clarke's perspective though that had the deepest impact.  "If you are analytical about [AI], you don't just get the rosy picture," he says about the experience of dealing with the intellectual giant, Clarke.

The threats and consequences of the technological singularity (Barrat actually prefers I.J. Good's term intelligence explosion), eventually led Barrat to write the book, Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era.

Huw Price, co-founder, Cambridge University Center for the Study of Existential Risk says it is "An important and disturbing book."

According to Nikola Danaylov, Our Final Invention "Is by far the most thoroughly researched and comprehensive anti-The Singularity is Near book that I have read so far."

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During a conversation with Danaylov (featured above) Barrat covers a variety of interesting topics such as: his work as a documentary film-maker who takes interesting and complicated subjects and makes them simple to understand; why writing was his first love and how he got interested in the Technological Singularity.

Barrat goes into depth on how his initial optimism about AI turned into pessimism and formed the thesis of Our Final Invention.  He sees artificial intelligence more like ballistic missiles rather than video games. According to Barrat, true intelligence is inherently unpredictable - a “black box.”

He believes that it is of the upmost importance to study the potential of artificial intelligence and the risk it presents.  To this end, he applauds the work of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and other organizations.

"Our Final Invention has one big agenda and that is to say before we share the planet with smarter-than-human intelligence we really need to develop a science for understanding it," says Barrat.

Barrat shares Kurzweil's timelines for the Singularity for the most part, however is pessimistic about the end result though, citing the fact that organizations like the American NSA and CIA are probably using DARPA to create artificial intelligence for military purposes without taking into account the effects this may have if an intelligence explosion occurs.


SOURCE  Singularity Weblog

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 Artificial Intelligence  

James Barrat's new book, Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era explores the perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI. Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with beings whose intelligence dwarfs our own?

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rtificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see, and even who you date. It puts the “smart” in your smartphone, it has the run of your house, and soon it will drive your car. It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls vital energy, water, and transportation infrastructure. But Artificial Intelligence can also threaten our existence.

Though primitive today, AI cognitive systems double in speed and power each year. In as little as a decade, AI could match and then surpass human intelligence. Corporations and government agencies are pouring billions into achieving AI’s Holy Grail—human-level intelligence. Once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine.

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Through profiles of tech visionaries, industry watchdogs, and groundbreaking AI systems, James Barrat's Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era explores the perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI. Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with beings whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And more to the point: Will they allow us to?

For about 20 years Barrat has written and produced documentaries.  A long-standing fascination with Artificial Intelligence came to a head in 2000, when he interviewed inventor Ray Kurzweil, roboticist Rodney Brooks, and sci-fi legend Arthur C. Clarke. Kurzweil and Brooks were casually optimistic about a future they considered inevitable - a time when we will share the planet with intelligent machines.

"It won't be some alien invasion of robots coming over the hill," Kurzweil told Barrat, "because they'll be made by us." In his compound in Sri Lanka, Clarke wasn't so sure. "I think it's just a matter of time before machines dominate mankind," he said. "Intelligence will win out."

Intelligence, not charm or beauty, is the special power that enables humans to dominate Earth. That dominance wasn't won by a huge intellectual margin either, but by a relatively small one. It doesn't take much to take it all. Now, propelled by a powerful economic wind, scientists are developing intelligent machines. Each year intelligence grows closer to shuffling off its biological coil and taking on an infinitely faster and more powerful synthetic one. But before machine intelligence matches our own, we have a chance. We must develop a science for understanding and coexisting with smart, even superintelligent machines. If we fail, we'll be stuck in an unwinnable dilemma. We'll have to rely on the kindness of machines to survive. Will machines naturally love us and protect us? 

Barrat asks, "Should we bet our existence on it?"

Our Final Invention is about what can go wrong with the development and application of advanced AI. It's about AI's catastrophic downside, one you'll never hear about from Google, Apple, IBM, and DARPA. It is growing into the most important conversation of our time.
Some advanced praise for the book:

"A hard-hitting book about the most important topic of this century and possibly beyond — the issue of whether our species can survive. I wish it was science fiction but I know it’s not.”
Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype

"The compelling story of humanity’s most critical challenge. A Silent Spring for the 21st Century.”
Michael Vassar, former President of the Singularity Institute

"Barrat’s book is excellently written and deeply researched. It does a great job of communicating to general readers the danger of mistakes in AI design and implementation.”
Bill Hibbard, author of Super-Intelligent Machines 

"Our Final Invention is a thrilling detective story, and also the best book yet written on the most important problem of the 21st century.”
Luke Muehlhauser, Executive Director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute 

"An important and disturbing book.”
Huw Price, co-founder, Cambridge University Center for the Study of Existential Risk

SOURCE  James Barrat

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