The Curious Technologist
“Our Final Invention” —Will Artificial Intelligence End the Human Epoch?
It has been claimed that Mankind’s last great invention will be the first self-replicating intelligent machine. The Hollywood cliché that artificial intelligence will take over the world could soon become scientific reality as AI matches then surpasses human intelligence. Each year AI’s cognitive speed and power doubles — ours does not. Corporations and government agencies are pouring billions into achieving AI’s Holy Grail — human-level intelligence. Scientists argue that AI that advanced will have survival drives much like our own. Can we share the planet with it and survive?
Our Final Invention, a brilliant new summary of the last 15 years of academic research on risks from advanced AI by James Barrat, explores how the pursuit of Artificial Intelligence challenges our existence with machines that won’t love us or hate us, but whose indifference could spell our doom. Until now, intelligence has been constrained by the physical limits of its human hosts. What will happen when the brakes come off the most powerful force in the universe?
Here are the critical points Barrat explores:
