288
14 Summary: What’s Wrong with AI?
might (have to) die early, if the predictions of the Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth”
and other studies were right.
15 This makes the heated debate on ethical dilemmas,
algorithms deciding about life and death, as well as killer robots and autonomous
weapons
16 understandable
17 (see discussion below).
Will we face something like a “digital holocaust”, where autonomous systems
decide about our life based on a Citizen Score or some other approach? Not necessarily so. Others believe that, in the “Second Machine Age”,
18 humans will experience unprecedented prosperity, i.e. we would enter some kind of technologically
enabled “paradise”, where we would finally have time for friends, hobbies, culture
and nature rather than being exploited for work. But even those optimists have often
issued warnings that societies would need a new framework in the age of AI, such
as a universal basic income.
19 We would certainly need a new societal contract.
14.1.3 Transhumanism
Opinions are not only divided about the future of humanity, but also on the future of
humans. Some, like Elon Musk, believe that humans would have to upgrade themselves with implanted computer chips in order to stay competitive with AI (and
actually merge with it).
20 In perspective, we would become cyborgs and replace
organs (degraded by aging, handicap, or disease) by technological solutions. Over
time, a bigger and bigger part of our body would be technologically upgraded, and
it would be increasingly impossible to tell humans and machines apart.
21 Eventually, some people believe, it might even become possible to upload the memories
of humans into a computer cloud and thereby allow humans to live there forever,
potentially connected to several robot bodies in various places.
22
15 Meadows [2].
16 Autonomous Weapons: An Open Letter from AI/ Robotics Researchers (July 28, 2015) https://
futureoflife.org/open-letter-autonomous-weapons/.
17 Autonome Intelligenz ist nicht nur in Kriegsrobotern riskant, NZZ (February 20, 2018) https://
www.nzz.ch/meinung/autonome-intelligenz-ist-nicht-nur-in-kriegsrobotern-riskant-ld.1351011.
18 Brynjolfsson and McAfee [3].
19 We Must Remake Society in the Coming Age of AI, Wired (October 12, 2016) https://www.
wired.com/2016/10/obama-aims-rewrite-social-contract-age-ai/.
20 Elon Musk unveils plan to build mind-reading implants: ‘The monkey is out of the bag’, The
Guardian (July 17, 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/17/elon-musk-neural
ink-brain-implants-mind-reading-artificial-intelligence.
21 „In Zukunft werden wir Mensch und Maschine wohl nicht mehr unterscheiden können“, NZZ
(August 22, 2019) https://www.nzz.ch/zuerich/mensch-oder-maschine-interview-mit-neuropsychol
oge-lutz-jaencke-ld.1502927.
22 Geraci [4].
14 Summary: What’s Wrong with AI?
might (have to) die early, if the predictions of the Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth”
and other studies were right.
15 This makes the heated debate on ethical dilemmas,
algorithms deciding about life and death, as well as killer robots and autonomous
weapons
16 understandable
17 (see discussion below).
Will we face something like a “digital holocaust”, where autonomous systems
decide about our life based on a Citizen Score or some other approach? Not necessarily so. Others believe that, in the “Second Machine Age”,
18 humans will experience unprecedented prosperity, i.e. we would enter some kind of technologically
enabled “paradise”, where we would finally have time for friends, hobbies, culture
and nature rather than being exploited for work. But even those optimists have often
issued warnings that societies would need a new framework in the age of AI, such
as a universal basic income.
19 We would certainly need a new societal contract.
14.1.3 Transhumanism
Opinions are not only divided about the future of humanity, but also on the future of
humans. Some, like Elon Musk, believe that humans would have to upgrade themselves with implanted computer chips in order to stay competitive with AI (and
actually merge with it).
20 In perspective, we would become cyborgs and replace
organs (degraded by aging, handicap, or disease) by technological solutions. Over
time, a bigger and bigger part of our body would be technologically upgraded, and
it would be increasingly impossible to tell humans and machines apart.
21 Eventually, some people believe, it might even become possible to upload the memories
of humans into a computer cloud and thereby allow humans to live there forever,
potentially connected to several robot bodies in various places.
22
15 Meadows [2].
16 Autonomous Weapons: An Open Letter from AI/ Robotics Researchers (July 28, 2015) https://
futureoflife.org/open-letter-autonomous-weapons/.
17 Autonome Intelligenz ist nicht nur in Kriegsrobotern riskant, NZZ (February 20, 2018) https://
www.nzz.ch/meinung/autonome-intelligenz-ist-nicht-nur-in-kriegsrobotern-riskant-ld.1351011.
18 Brynjolfsson and McAfee [3].
19 We Must Remake Society in the Coming Age of AI, Wired (October 12, 2016) https://www.
wired.com/2016/10/obama-aims-rewrite-social-contract-age-ai/.
20 Elon Musk unveils plan to build mind-reading implants: ‘The monkey is out of the bag’, The
Guardian (July 17, 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/17/elon-musk-neural
ink-brain-implants-mind-reading-artificial-intelligence.
21 „In Zukunft werden wir Mensch und Maschine wohl nicht mehr unterscheiden können“, NZZ
(August 22, 2019) https://www.nzz.ch/zuerich/mensch-oder-maschine-interview-mit-neuropsychol
oge-lutz-jaencke-ld.1502927.
22 Geraci [4].