Gigaom AI Minute – September 29

Transcript

If we built an artificial general intelligence, how would we use it? I'd like to give you three scenarios and ask what you think about them.

The first is human companions. If you can hold a conversation with an AGI, it would probably learn your sense of humor, and find out the things that you find interesting. Eventually, it would understand everything about you. In this case, a good number of people are going to fall in love with their AGI. This is the premise of the movies Her and Ex Machina. You will undoubtedly have people who want to marry and raise offspring with their AGI partner. We are already aimed in that direction. Robot designers try to make robots that people will want to interact with, and to do that, they give them facial expressions and body movements designed to mimic humans.

Second, an AI as a judge in court. Justice may be blind, but humans sometimes aren't. A good case will probably be made that AGI judges are smarter, know the law better, have less bias, and can factor in more circumstances than a human judge ever could. And yet, the first time an AGI rules that a human should be locked away in prison, we may get a collective sense of the chills.

And finally, politicians. An AGI would probably be put in charge of a town's water treatment plant. Then, after a while, it might lobby to get a seat on the city council, then mayor, governor, and finally President. At that point, just let the AGIs rule the whole world, right? This is one of those ideas that greatly appeals to 49% of the population after each election cycle.