AI should be seen as a “new kind of digital species” that will become “infinitely knowledgeable” according to a senior Microsoft chief.
Mustafa Suleyman believes we’ll eventually see AI as our “digital companions” or “new partners,” rather than a tool, he revealed in a recent TED Talk.
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Suleyman is Microsoft’s AI CEO and co-founded Deepmind, the now-Google owned top secret artificial intelligence research lab.
In an 18 minute discussion about the tech, he predicted that AI will have a “near-perfect IQ” but it’ll also have exceptional emotional intelligence too.
“They’ll be kind, supportive, empathetic,” he said.
Suleyman sought to demystify AI amid a backdrop of growing concern about its impact on issues ranging from jobs to AI-generated deepfakes during a busy year of elections.
“AIs are clearly more dynamic, more ambiguous, more integrated and more emergent than mere tools, which are entirely subject to human control,” he explained.
“So to contain this wave, to put human agency at its centre and to mitigate the inevitable unintended consequences that are likely to arise, we should start to think about them as we might a new kind of digital species.
“Now it’s just an analogy, it’s not a literal description, and it’s not perfect.
“For a start, they clearly aren’t biological in any traditional sense, but just pause for a moment and really think about what they already do.”
He goes onto say they “consume unimaginably large amounts of information” and possess memory, personality and creativity.
“They do all this at levels of sophistication that is far beyond anything that we’ve ever known from a mere tool,” he continued.
“And so saying AI is mainly about the math or the code is like saying we humans are mainly about carbon and water. It’s true, but it completely misses the point.
“And yes, I get it, this is a super arresting thought but I honestly think this frame helps sharpen our focus on the critical issues.”
While there are worries about AI, the technology is already being used for good.
Researchers have been exploring new ways for it to be used in healthcare.
Just this week, a study was published suggesting that an AI-powered test could detect three major types of cancer – bowel, stomach and pancreatic – within minutes.
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