Cox instructed 9news.com.au there are each instant and long-term questions on AI that humanity wants to begin answering as quickly as potential – however conceded an extinction-level occasion will not be seemingly.
“I think there are big questions, really practical questions, now about AI systems in use,” he stated.
“The immediate problem is when you give control to an AI system, as we do now, then who decides how those decisions are made?
“Is it simply left to this AI factor, or does society have some sort of democratic management?”
Cox went on to cite a fictitious example of what would happen should an automated driving system be put in a situation where the driver and another person, are about to be injured
“This is an unlikely state of affairs,” he admitted, before continuing.
“But is it going to injure a pedestrian, injure the motive force, injure a toddler, does it say I do not need to injure a toddler, moderately than an grownup.
“Those questions need addressing.”
The trickier questions, Cox stated, come up over longer-term fears the techniques might change into as clever as people at some point.
“We don’t have those at the moment,” he stated, including these techniques are known as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
“I’m not an expert, but there are varying estimates about time scales, I mean it’s not actually completely accepted we will ever be able to build something of that intelligence; it’s in the unknown box, but it might happen quite soon”.
“Ultimately, this all comes down to thinking carefully now about how we regulate these systems; who controls them, who programs them, how much autonomy do they have, how do we deal with them legally…
“Those are actual questions and if we reply them now we shall be higher ready if we run into deeper challenges sooner or later.”
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The comment comes as the renowned professor of particle physics prepares to make his return to Australia for the world premiere of his live stage show Symphonic Horizons.
Cox and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra will join forces at the Sydney Opera House for four shows to answer fundamental questions about human existence and space.
He said if he could have one question answered about the universe tomorrow it would be “are we alone”.
“There’s a number of them (questions), however one of many ones I feel we now have an opportunity in answering is ‘are we alone’, or let’s put it one other means, how far we now have to go to find life past Earth?”.
Cox explained the mystery of consciousness, questions of where we sit in the universe, is one of the aspects that fascinates him most about the unexplored frontier.
This will form a core aspect of Symphonic Horizons.
“And why can the universe perceive itself, and the way does that occur?
“That for me is as fundamental as asking questions about the nature of space and time, and the origins of the universe itself.
“We will all come out (of the reveals) with a special view of our place within the universe, however I do not know what that view shall be till we now have achieved it.”
Source: www.9news.com.au
