KDnuggets : News : 2009 : n14 : item24 < PREVIOUS | NEXT >

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Subject: Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

NYTimes, By JOHN MARKOFF. July 25, 2009

Robot This personal robot plugs itself in when it needs a charge. Servant now, master later? Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society�s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.

Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.

As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could thus be said to have reached a "cockroach" stage of machine intelligence.

www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/science/26robot.html


KDnuggets : News : 2009 : n14 : item24 < PREVIOUS | NEXT >

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