By Farzad Mesbahi

Weird title, right?

Let me preface the article by saying that Artificial Intelligence (or AI) has the potential to have the greatest impact out of anything the human race has experienced in its existence. It is both incredibly scary and incredibly encouraging. AI's implications range from enabling humans to live for untold number of years to literally putting everyone out of a job forever (or worse.) The key thing here is that these two are separated by the smallest of margins, and could potentially happen simultaneously. How can something be this powerful?

Before we continue, I'd like to give a huge shout out to the folks over at WaitButWhy.com, who inspired me to really give a lot of thought to AI. I highly recommend everyone puts aside some time to read through their piece about the impacts of AI to humanity, and how the concept of "Superintelligence" (more on this soon) is not only real, but totally achievable given the right circumstances (click on the following http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html.)

Let's start by giving a baseline expectation of what AI could mean:

A computer that is incredibly good at a given task, but its only use is confined to that one task (or group of tasks.) This is commonly referred to as "Narrow AI" This can be adaptive cruise control on cars, or Siri on Apple iPhones & iPads

A system of computers (or an individual computer) that uses the information that is fed to it to learn more about a given subject or field. IBM's Watson supercomputer is a perfect example of this - the same one that won Jeopardy by beating a field of previous winners. Tesla's recent Autopilot software that it uploaded to all its cars works in a very similar way, where it learns from roads and driver habits and allows all the cars in its fleet to drive themselves once activated (a separate piece on Tesla's impact can be found here http://www.degeneratestalk.com/posts/2015/12/9/tesla-motors-americas-next-behemoth.)

A god-like "creature" that is all knowledgeable, all powerful, and able to transcend the confines of time and space through discoveries and learning that it has amassed through its own processes (think Skynet on steroids.) It would just so happen that this "creature" has been built with a foundation of computers using an incredibly advanced form of machine learning algorithms (self-learning) which has enabled this "thing" to develop Superintelligence.

Yes - we did get quite a bit nutty on that last one, but I think it's this exact thing that poses the premise of AI becoming the best worst thing ever, and the concept of Superintelligence is the key to this achievement. Superintelligence is roughly defined as a being or agent that is far smarter and/or intelligent than any human being that has ever lived. Many experts think that this will be achieved by the continued advancements of computing power and advancements in quantum mechanic implementations in computers, and that such an achievement will be achieved as soon as 40 or so years from now (refer to the previous WaitButWhy link which perfectly outlines how this date is reached.) The interesting part is that a Superintelligent thing can truly look like anything - it is the "power" and decision making ability that this agent will possess that has the potential to make it impossible to quantify its impact. This concept is also commonly referred to as the Singularity.

Let's frame some possibilities of what a Superintelligent being might look like, with an assumption that technology will be significantly more advanced than it is now (technological progress is constantly accelerating, so tech 10 years in the future will be significantly more improved compared to now, versus 10 years ago compared to now):

A computer somewhere underground that holds all of humanity's knowledge, and is able to quickly and effectively solve any problem that is thrown at it, including outlining steps to solve world hunger, cancer, and diabetes

A system of machines that are hooked up to a central "brain" that carry out directions. This can be an army of robots that are designed to deconstruct a given set of buildings in a city and rebuild them into new structures using the atomic makeup of the old materials, essentially creating a perfect system of recycling. The central brain has 100% control over its decisions, has 0 human interaction, and will always make the right decision for the benefit of humanity

A computer system that is hooked up to every machine, computer, or anything that is on the internet. Because of this, the system is able to carry out anything it ever pleases, from controlling the amount of food that is generated in a given farm, to monitoring all the nuclear plants in the world to create the exact amount of energy needed, to manufacturing and constantly improve every robot that is currently being used for the services of man-kind. We can call this guy the Utopia machine

All of these things sound wonderful, right? It may be hard to believe that such a thing is even achievable at any pace of technological progress, but it makes logical sense that it is at least possible. A very simple thought experiment to come to this conclusion is to take something from today and rewind the clock 50 years. If we were to take an iPhone, and put it in front of a person from 1965, what would their reaction be? Remember that this person would just be getting used to a color television. Pretty crazy, right? Now take a Color TV and take it back 50 years from 1965. Similar reaction, no?

One thing to highlight however is the gap between advancements and reactions to these achievements will begin to diminish. It wasn't until the industrial revolution of the 1700s that truly accelerated the pace of technology in our society. Before then, if you take a person from the late 1600s and the 1000s, the biggest invention and/or discovery would be something like science, astronomy, or a watch. Take it back another 1000 years and the gap gets smaller. In conclusion, one can say with pretty strong confidence that the rate of technological advancement in the last 100 years is faster than its ever been. It is for this exact reason that thinking 50 years in the future is close to impossible to predict.

This is exactly why the concept of Superintelligence brings such dissonance. The thought of having Artificial Intelligence that is smarter than anything that's ever existed at the power of humans is the best recipe for Utopia. This will likely come along with all the advancements in machinery, automation, and robotics, likely influenced by said Superintelligence. A perfect society with everything for anyone is very likely achievable. There could be a generation after ours that will never experience "work" - a person from this time could wake up every morning, and live exactly how they want for however long they want. Cancer won't be a thing anymore since the A.I. would have fixed it. You won't have to go to work because the A.I. is already doing anything that is needed for human beings. Hungry? Don't worry, there's an unlimited supply of food that is being harvested to perfection by the Utopia machine, and will likely be free.