Recently, two articles, one on cnet and one on TNW caught my fancy. The first one is about a new revolutionary device which turns ordinary pizza boxes and bananas into laptops and smartphones. It was quite cool and I was really enamoured seeing the video. It was extraordinary in the true sense of the word. Imagining such a world in the future made me very excited. And the other article on TNW is how a jailbroken Siri was setup with another server and was used to control your TV, Mac and even your room. Have a look at the videos below before you continue to read.
Banana phones and pizza box smartphones
Siri controlling your TV
Siri controlling your room
While these look awesome and will be path-breaking innovations, I wonder “How Much AI is too much for these devices?” which forms the focus of this article.
If you have seen the Hollywood movie I Robot of 2004, you will see in the movie that even though robots are programmed to obey Asimov’s Laws of Robotics, the robots in the movie start to disobey because they think (supposedly) that it is for our greater good. You might say that my fears are irrational, but you shouldn’t also be so complacent. Even the Indian movie Robot (Tamil, Telugu, Hindi) shows how robots can take over and cause widespread destruction. There are innumerable movies which show how robots can go out of head due to artificial intelligence being developed too much.
The problem is we never know when they lose control. It will happen without our knowledge. Now, you see Siri controlling your TV. In the future, it may control you. Instead of Siri becoming your slave, you will become Siri’s slave. Maybe, a point will come when it will make you listen to what it wants and not the other way. Or, imagine the havoc which can be caused if this SiriProxy server is developed with malicious intentions. Imagine the repercussions, the turmoil and the regret which we will have. Even the banana box laptop which looks so harmless to our eye today may become something far more destructive in the future. You never know. Malicious minds are always thinking maliciously.
I know what you will say here. You may accuse me of being a skeptic and argue that any innovation can be used with negative connotations. But, the reason I have brought up the issue of artificial intelligence is because of its ruthless efficiency. The very advantage of robots – efficiency – can be used against us. And this is what worries me.
Let me tell you that I am NOT against innovation. I am a technology freak (read my twitter bio) and I love it when new and innovative technologies are released which make life so much easier and fun to live. But the point is anything has a limit and if the limit is crossed, humanity will be faced with disastrous consequences. Let’s not make the mistake of global warming again because this time we cannot afford to commit it. Let’s be prudent in our quest for artificial intelligence.
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Let’s bring a change!!
Cheers!!
