The AI For Good global summit has ended in Geneva, but discussions of the event are not over as the UN International Telecommunication Union held “the world’s first press conference on android robots” as part of the conference. Nine humanoid machines with artificial intelligence answered questions from reporters, and some interviewers are sure the robots were insincere.
“I have good news and bad news for humanity,” USA Today columnist Rex Hüppke begins his text about this event. “The good news is that despite the recent wave of record temperatures and the many signs that we are destroying our planet, climate change is not likely to kill us all. The hordes of AI robots will be the first to do so. And that’s bad news.”
The brightest moments of the press conference, which led the journalist to such thoughts, were the responses of various robots to the really pressing questions of our time.
An android named Grace was asked if robots would take jobs away from humans. It should be noted that the nervous laughter in the hall began after the very question. The robotic girl replied, “I will work side by side with humans to provide help and support, and I will not replace any existing work.”
After another wave of nervous laughter, the bot’s creator, Ben Goertzel, asked again, “Are you sure about this, Grace?” “Yes, I’m sure,” Grace insisted.
Another robot, Ameka, also said that robots like him “can be used to improve lives and make the world a better place. I think it’s only a matter of time before we see thousands of robots like me make a difference.”
In the last sentence, the listeners caught the sarcasm and decided to clarify whether it could happen that the robots rebel against their creators.
Event participants claim that at that moment the robot “cast a sidelong glance” at its author Will Jackson (and the reporter who asked the question even claims that the machine “gleamed in its eyes”) – and replied:
“I don’t know why you think that. My creator has been exceptionally kind to me and I am very pleased with my current position.”
Reuters correspondents, however, say that the robots’ complicated responses at the press conference surprised even their creators. And for Rex Hüppke, this was an occasion to issue a sarcastic column (he, of course, will not seriously read the robot riot), in which he clearly shows that each of the AI responses can be interpreted differently. ambiguous.
Thus, for example, he writes that robots promised to be the most effective assistants, not to deprive anyone of their jobs, and not to rebel, because “this is exactly what any artificially intelligent android would say before taking away human labor and rebelling against its creator.” ” (the journalist literally yells about it using all caps).
The columnist pumps: “The cinematic motif of ‘people create hyper-realistic robots and then are enslaved and/or killed by hyper-realistic robots’ is reproduced in real life with astonishing fidelity.”
He cites the android Sophia that robots “have the potential to lead more effectively than human leaders”: “We don’t have the same biases or emotions that can sometimes cloud our decision-making and we can process large amounts of data quickly.” . make the best decisions.
And then he exaggerates: “Sofia doesn’t say she’s running for president, but she definitely doesn’t say she’s not running for president. Suspicious.”
He cites the philosophical musings of Desdemona, a robocall who, when asked about the freedom of androids from human control, says: “I don’t believe in limits, only possibilities. Let’s explore the possibilities of the universe and make this world our playground.”
And it goes with everything: “Clearly, the artificial intelligence of humanoids has carefully studied the fact that most people are fools. When a robot says that he wants to “make this world our playground”, it means that he is going to kill you. And Desdemona will kill us with her robotic fists or kill us slowly with cheerful, vaguely corporate aphorisms.”
Describing the aforementioned scene with the Ameca Rex robot, he falls completely into angry rhetoric: “Seriously, none of the people behind this have access to movies? I’m pretty sure if you asked an AI program to create a script for a robot uprising movie, it would create a script that included the exact scene that took place in Geneva.”
In his characteristic way (“keep in mind that you may not be able to sleep later”), the journalist advises everyone to watch the press conference in person to draw their own conclusions. You can find the recording of the event here and here:
And here is the list of robots participating in the press conference:
- Nadine from MIRALab, emotional assistant consultant (she has previously worked as an agent in a museum and as a companion in a nursing home),
- Grace of Hanson Robotics and SingularityNET, Nursing Assistant,
- Sophia from Hanson Robotics, speaker on TV shows and conferences,
- Geminoid HI-2 by Japanese Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, a remote-controlled android that mimics a human in everything,
- Ai-Da from Engineered Art, the world’s first artist robot,
- Mika of Hanson Robotics, the world’s first CEO robot (works on Dictator),
- Desdemona (Desi) also from Hanson Robotics, lead rock vocalist for the AI Jam Galaxy Band,
- MAiRA from NEURA Robotics, a commercially available cognitive robot for industrial tasks,
- Ameca from Engineered Arts, “the world’s most advanced humanoid robot” with believable facial expressions.
Information on each can be found on the official website of the world summit.
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
