Many tech bros are not the hard-bitten skeptical atheists one might expect, but more and more are speaking with religious fervor about the prospects of Artificial Intelligence. Despite AI’s many flaws, and that it presents an imitation of consciousness but is not conscious itself, some people are looking at AI as God being born. Not only do they view the bright shiny future in glowing millennial terms, but as an Apocalypse where human consciousness merges with machine intellect in ecstatic transcendent communion.
AI Apocalypse? Why language surrounding tech is sounding increasingly religious
For those decidedly less optimistic for whom AI seems more like Armageddon than the Millennium, there may not be much hope. Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize winner called the “father of AI”, recently suggested that it may be too late to pull the plug. Our only salvation may come from instilling some sort of maternal affection in AI systems.
Geoffrey Hinton’s “Maternal Instincts” Solution for AI Safety
That might not prevent dystopia, for a dictatorship of protective robot nannies is likely no more tolerable than any other kind. And implanting instincts of any kind is even more impossible than alignment. AI systems, after all, lack the basic biological mechanisms. It’s all a glittering fake, just like everything else they can produce — which does not mean it’s not useful, but it’s not magic either. It’s all pretend.
So others demand the immediate universal adoption of commandments that limit research and deployment of AI systems. Not only is that as difficult as holding back the tide, it is very likely already too late.
