The public's attitude toward artificial intelligence technology seems to be hovering between fear and cautious optimism in 2017. However, more and more people believe artificial intelligence will play a crucial role in human development, neither of whom are outsiders , Nor are they different people - in fact, they are working on cutting-edge technology companies such as Google research.
Ray Kurzweil, Google's expert on artificial intelligence and futurism, delivered a speech last week at the Foreign Relations Commission 'Intimate Q & A Session.' In the public opinion, Ray Kurzweil's views on the future of mankind can be radical because in the public mind The heads-up warnings of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking to the Third World War have left a deep impression on them.
He immediately pointed out that the present age is the best period in man's history, and he means most people do not know that hunger and poverty are already at their lowest ever. 'The world's three billion people own smartphones and I At first I thought it was two billion, but it turned out to be three billion. 'In a few years, the figure will be six billion,' he said.
The deadliest war in human history ended World War II 72 years ago and since then mankind has been caught in countless small-scale clashes, police operations and even real wars, yet the United States is still stuck in its history The longest-running war can not see the end - at a time when mankind is enjoying an unprecedented period of peace in the history of human civilization.
But there are also fears that artificial intelligence will affect this process to some extent and involve humanity in another event of 'destruction', if technology such as atomic bombs would make World War II the most deadly destruction of all time ever , Then, the destructive third world war is not greater?
According to Kurzweil, the facts are far more complicated than that, and he believes that the reason we are able to co-exist harmoniously (in a macro-historical context) for so long is partly because democratization has begun to take root around the world. , He also believes that the advances in communications technology directly contributed to the rise of democracy, according to him:
A century ago, there were only a handful of democracies; even two centuries ago, the number of democracies was even smaller. At present, the entire world seems to have become more peaceful and peaceful, but this is not the case because of our Judgment of the existence of the problem is increasingly clear.
So what happens next? He believes that the biological characteristics we have will diminish as humans evolve, and the next phase of our evolution will be the internal application of technology. The result of human-computer mixing is not the metal monster It will only become a chip in your brain, not an iPhone in your hand.
Instead of asking Google 'Hey, what's the weather like today?' And waiting for the answer from the blinking box, it's better to be more shocked: the weather emerges in my mind and you get the answer straight away.
Kursweil believes that by 2029, 'medical robots can access our brain and connect our neocortex to a smart cloud.'
Even for tech reporters who often report on artificial intelligence, that idea can be quite shocking, and it's hard to imagine that just as Justin Bieber was 35, people could connect the brain with the cloud.
However, do not pretend to be Ray Kurzweil's point of view: he seldom makes mistakes, and he has done hundreds of scientific and technical predictions, which should theoretically be done by futurists, but what he did The forecast is 90% correct.
The future is inconceivable, according to Kurzweil, but it's worth mentioning that he thinks the days are remarkable, and he reminds us, "Just a few years ago we had smartphones and other communication devices, but they ran Not fluent, 'he's right.
Today's smartphones easily handle complex voice commands such as 'find out all the photos I took when I went to San Francisco', 'play Star Trek: the Next Generation' Season 3 Episode 16, etc. Today's handsets are recognizable The speaker, even when playing music, can recognize your voice and execute the command effortlessly.
Just a few years ago, most of us would often give up using voice control as we were tired of repeating instructions endlessly, and we thought we would have waited until the day when technology improvements were really much better.
According to experts such as Ray Kurzweil, nowadays, artificial intelligence has effectively affected all areas of our lives, and as individuals, we may not be able to immediately notice these changes, but our dependence on machine learning is exponentially increasing.
The behind-the-scenes artificial intelligence revolution is accelerating the law of return and Ray Kurzweil's prediction that the limits of machine learning capabilities will probably need to be reassessed at any moment in time.