Technology versus Humanity

“If you think about it, when we ask whether a machine is conscious or not, what we are asking is what this machine is. However, I’m much more interested in what the machine does. It’s actually pretty plausible and it seems even likely that the machines that will dominate humanity will actually not be conscious, they are just very competent.”

Skype Co-Founder Says Our Biggest Existential Threat Is Artificial Intelligence
https://medium.com/@TheAppGuy/skype-co-founder-says-our-biggest-existential-threat-is-artificial-intelligence-1aa9d9a901fd
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“rather than serving this goal, Facebook’s AIs are servicing a far older and more well-established social goal, which was designed for the betterment of mankind. This is the goal of maximising value in pursuit of economic self-interest.

Neoliberal economics is based on the idea that the pursuit of individual, economic self-interest leads to the creation of greater value, which benefits society and results in the emergent betterment of mankind.

The individual self-interest being pursued in this case is that of Facebook, a legal person who is programmed, within our economic and legal system, with a single mandated goal: the delivery of maximum value to its shareholders. Facebook’s AIs are the technological limbs of that person, and they must ultimately reach out into the world to carry out that goal.”

Click here for the AI apocalypse (brought to you by Facebook) | Robert Smith
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/23/ai-apocalypse-facebook-algorithms
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“We are beginning to live in just such a world. From prosthetic limbs to heart pacemakers to miniature brain chips, many people already stay functional by their collaboration with AI. Like Hawking they are cyborgs too. Soon enough, we will see "helper" AI in the form of personal assistants, memory aids, intelligent knowledge banks and translators supplementing human intelligence in the workplace and at home. Arguably this is already happening as more and more people depend on their smartphones or their diary apps. The immediate future of AI looks more like this: each of us carrying with us a cloud of machine intelligence which adapts to and amplifies our intentions.”

Stephen Hawking is wrong. Humans won't compete with AI – we will merge with it
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/10/20/stephen-hawking-is-wrong-humans-wont-compete-with-ai--we-will-me/
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“The decisions by both Google and Facebook seem to indicate that the tech behemoths are starting to face up to the fact that they are not just conduits of information, but responsible for their acts. As such, they are a part of modern mass media and should be held to the same standards, both legally and ethically, as broadcasters and newspapers. Witness the growing outcry over their power in distributing information to the American electorate.”

Google, Facebook and the Search for Truth - The Futures Agency | A global network of futurists and keynote speakers
http://thefuturesagency.com/2016/11/16/google-facebook-and-the-search-for-truth/
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“In the future, I believe that there will be a co-existence between humans and artificial intelligence systems that will be hopefully of service to humanity. These AI systems will involve software systems that handle the digital world, and also systems that move around in physical space, like drones, and robots, and autonomous cars, and also systems that process the physical space, like the Internet of Things.

You will have more intelligent systems in the physical world, too — not just on your cell phone or computer, but physically present around us, processing and sensing information about the physical world and helping us with decisions that include knowing a lot about features of the physical world. As time goes by, we’ll also see these AI systems having an impact on broader problems in society: managing traffic in a big city, for instance; making complex predictions about the climate; supporting humans in the big decisions they have to make.”

Humanity and AI will be inseparable, says CMU's Head of Machine Learning | Verge 2021
http://www.theverge.com/a/verge-2021/humanity-and-ai-will-be-inseparable
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