Peterson 0

Jacob Peterson

Ms. Anne Torgersen

English 12 - Period 8

February 12th, 2018

AACC #6

Annotations

● Are we heading into a glorious tech-enabled future where many menial tasks will

be handled by savant machines, or one where the robots will have taken over for

us woefully underpowered humans?

● Excitement over AI's potentially positive impacts seems, for now, adequately

tempered by an acknowledgement that scientists need to stay vigilant about how

such technology is developed, to ensure bias is eliminated and control is

retained.

● "Innovation has generally liberated humans to be more productive," says Rep.

John Delaney, D-Md.

● There are in fact a growing number of groups being formed to try to ensure that

dismal future never comes to pass.

● Apple, Facebook and Amazon declined to provide an executive to speak on the

record on AI's pros and cons. Representatives from each company did, however,

emphasize they had employees on staff tasked with AI oversight.

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● Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak initially found himself in the AI-wary camp. He,

like Musk and Hawking, was concerned that machines with human-like

consciousness could eventually pose a risk to homo sapiens.

● But then he changed his thinking, based largely on the notion that humans still

remain perplexed by how the brain works its magic, which in turn means that it

would be difficult for scientists to create machines that can think like us.

● "We may have machines now that simulate intelligence, but that's different from

truly replicating how the brain works," says Wozniak.

● Results of a Pew Research Center poll released in October found that between

half and three-quarters of respondents considered themselves "worried" when

asked about AI's impact on doing human jobs (72%), evaluating job candidates

(67%), building self-driving cars (54%) and caring for the elderly (47%).

● "AI may seem threatening," he says, "but hitting the pause button is not realistic.

The global race is on."

Abstract

This article consists mainly of the arguments and perspectives of technological leaders

about artificial intelligence and whether it is an eminent threat to the human race. It

starts off by recalling the comments made by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Musk

is a strong believer in the limitation of AI and the need for it to be regulated. The article

then proceeds to state Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s stance on the

pressing subject. Zuckerberg believe that AI will be more helpful than detrimental to

humans and calling out the contrary remarks of others “pretty irresponsible.” The article
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then explores the comments of researchers from DeepMind (an Artificial intelligence

research and development company) and their remarks which simply state that there is

no need for worry in the short-term, but AI is a possible doomsday device. The article

then concludes with with a poll made by the Pew Research Center asking participants

about the concern of AI on the social and economic world.

Contextual Connection

I strongly agree with many of the arguments made in this article. One specific argument

that I found profound was what Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said about how

humans right now still don’t understand how exactly the human brain ‘works its magic’

so the advent of a technological singularity is, for now, seemingly far-fetched. I found

the results of the Pew Research Center poll significant in the fact that many (72%) find

that AI’s impact on jobs is concerning. I strongly agree with Elon Musk’s opinion on the

matter in that AI is potentially dangerous and could lead the the ultimate demise of the

human race.

Source

della Cava, Marco. "Artificial intelligence: Doomsday scenario - or age of wonder?" ​USA

Today​, 2 Jan. 2018, p. 01B. ​Science in Context​,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A521212344/SCIC?u=pioneer&xid=56f365f7.

Accessed 21 Feb. 2018.