Yesterday, I stumbled upon a very interesting article published by BBC News. The article, titled Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind, briefly introduced what artificial intelligence is and how several professors and scientists feel about such technologies. One artificial intelligence technology, or AI, mentioned in the article was the Cleverbot, a software designed to converse and chat like a human. The Cleverbot scored high in the Turing test, tricking most participants into thinking they were talking to a human. Stephen Hawking warns us against AI technology, saying "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race" (Hawking, 2014). He also reminds us that humans are limited to competing with AI technologies due to our slow rate of biological evolution. Hawking does believe that AI technology can be useful, but needs to be highly monitored. Oppositely, Rollo Carpenter, the creator of the Cleverbot, believes that humans will have the ability to control technology for a long time. He says, "I believe we will remain in charge of the technology for a decently long time and the potential of it to solve many of the world problems will be realised," (Carpenter, 2014). After much thought and deliberation, I agree with Hawking. I think that it is critical for us to monitor AI technology. The capacity of the technology is amazing, but the consequences of the technology could easily surpass the benefits if we are not careful.
Cellan-Jones, Rory. "Hawking: AI Could End Human Race." BBC News Technology. BBC News, 2 Dec. 2014. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540>.
