The Real AI Threat!
Did you see the recent segment on 60 minutes on artificial intelligence? It was a fascinating (and frightening) look at how advanced AI already is and what it's becoming.
First of all, get rid of the idea that AI is about creating computers to think like us. AI isn't anything like that, and I don't know if it ever will be.
Instead, AI is about harnessing massive computing power in an incredibly efficient way. Kai-Fu Lee, the author of "A.I., Superpowers, China, Silicon Valley and the New World" explains it like this...
"In early days of AI, people tried to program the AI with how people think. So, I would write a program to say, measure the size of the eyes and their distance, measure the size of the nose, measure the shape of the face, and then if these things match, then this is Larry and that's John. But today, you just take all the pictures of Larry and John and you tell the system "Go at It". You figure out what separates Larry from John."
Watch this scene, and you will see the incredible power that governments have to control their populous.