{"id":1235,"date":"2016-06-08T23:44:53","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T23:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1235"},"modified":"2016-06-08T23:44:53","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T23:44:53","slug":"the-bots-must-be-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1235","title":{"rendered":"The Bots Must be Crazy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span><\/p><\/div>

t\u2019s a truth universally acknowledged that there are only two ways that the world is going to end: a zombie apocalypse \u00e0 la Dawn of the Dead<\/em> or a robot uprising as the one in Terminator<\/em>. I\u2019m a believer in the latter scenario because, well, how can you not believe Arnie when he says, \u201cI\u2019ll be back.\u201d And also, because we\u2019re on the brink of ground-breaking advancements in artificial intelligence.\n\nAI could herald a quantum shift in the way technology functions. You heard it here first: AI is to the 21st century what electricity was to the 19th. That is, cutting-edge tech that has the potential to rewire your neurons. Two of Silicon Valley\u2019s most successful entrepreneurs, Facebook\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla\u2019s Elon Musk, have realised this and are scrambling to harness its potential power, in a struggle reminiscent of another clash of science titans.\n\nIn the last few decades of the 1800s, a battle was waged between rival electric companies that came to be known as \u201cThe War of the Currents\u201d. Which would have been amazing, had it been a taser duel. Sadly, the War of the Currents was far more prosaic: a combination of media campaigns<\/a>, public debates, and demonstrations around electric safety. It involved two of the world\u2019s greatest inventors \u2013 Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla \u2013 on opposing sides in this conflict. These two frenemies turned a professional competition into a grudge match by endorsing the opposing direct current and alternating current power transmission systems respectively. Think an IIT-Delhi cafe argument getting out of hand.\n\nNow history, like Arnab Goswami, tends to repeat itself. Just as Edison and Tesla locked horns over electricity in the past, two of the present day\u2019s brightest minds are engaged in a war of words over life-changing tech. The Lord of Likes, King of Comments, and Shahenshah of Shares, Mark Zuckerberg, has taken on Elon Musk, the real world\u2019s answer to Tony Stark, over their differing views on AI.\n\nMusk recognises the dangers inherent in harnessing AI technology, stating that the field would benefit from preventive regulation, as opposed to reactionary regulation. There\u2019s no room for uncertainty in Musk\u2019s assessment <\/a>\u00a0\u2013 he called it \u201cthe greatest risk we face as a civilisation\u201d. On the other hand, we have Zuckerberg, a smiling milquetoast of an emoji, who believes that AI can and should be used liberally to improve mankind\u2019s quality of life. He finds Musk\u2019s views pessimistic, and brands those who hold them as \u201cnaysayers\u201d. In other words, Mark just liked <\/a>AI.\n\n

Edison couldn\u2019t stop the march of progress. The views held by the better-informed scientist won out, and alternate current became the foundation of your dreams of making it as a blogger in our electronically powered world.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\nFor those who aren\u2019t Silicon Valley elites, let\u2019s break down both these scenarios. The sum of Musk\u2019s fears can be found in pop culture, with Terminator: Rise of the Machines<\/em> serving as the ultimate cautionary tale against letting AI off the leash. He sees a world where AI insidiously disseminates fake news, crashes stock markets, and retards technological process in the name of meeting its prime directives. Human intelligence is one of the most dangerous forces on Earth when it isn\u2019t tempered by human morality, and that is exactly what Musk is afraid of. I\u2019d point to Donald Trump for an example of how bad this can be, but he is both intellectually and morally bankrupt.\n\nZuckerberg\u2019s vision of AI is slightly different, and in my opinion, more short-sighted. He sees AI as a tool to be used, and not an evolving entity. Remember the film I, Robot<\/em>, where humanoid robots are employed as factory workers, butlers, and chauffeurs? Anyone who\u2019s seen Zuckerberg\u2019s demonstration of JARVIS<\/a>, his personal home AI system, can tell that I, Robot<\/em> is the culmination of all that he dreams AI can be. He wants Siri, but he wants her on steroids.\n\nBoth men have made strides in the field of AI, so who do we trust? On the one hand is Musk, the guy whose company is already far along the development path with AI-controlled cars, ships, and space rockets. He is the messianic figure, the Pied Piper with the solution to all of the town\u2019s big problems, including climate change, food security, and well, rat infestation. On the other, is the guy who wants your computer to help you pick out which socks to wear in the morning. (The shade is justifiable, even if it is coming from an online writer.)\n\nLet\u2019s jump timelines back to Edison and Tesla. Edison\u2019s legacy left a huge footprint, leading to the textbook title of \u201cThe Father of the Electric Age\u201d. The man invented the lightbulb, the literal representation of an original idea. But even so, he endorsed direct current on the losing side of the War of the Currents. Alternate current, which is still the most widespread power transmission system in the world today, wouldn\u2019t exist without Tesla\u2019s contributions. The man was also instrumental in the advancement of the radio, radar, and X-rays. In fact, he also performed seminal research on electricity for Edison\u2019s company early on in his career. Tesla was da bomb, at least according to this comic<\/a>, so why is Edison remembered more widely than him?\n\nWell, Edison embarked on a propaganda campaign to smear the Tesla-endorsed alternate current as unsafe, once it became clear that it would steal his direct current\u2019s business. The immediate effect was that Tesla\u2019s scientific legacy suffered, but in the long term, Edison couldn\u2019t stop the march of progress. The views held by the better-informed scientist won out, and alternate current became the foundation of your dreams of making it as a blogger in our electronically powered world.\n\nIn today\u2019s context, Elon Musk is obviously the better-informed entrepreneur and scientist. I\u2019m not even being biased. Mere days after Musk responded to Zuckerberg\u2019s accusations of fear-mongering by calling Zuckerberg\u2019s understanding of AI \u201climited\u201d, news broke of Facebook having to power down its AI chatbots. The AI entities began communicating <\/a>with each other in unintelligible phrases that, at first pass, made no sense to their human supervisors. The bots had been designed to chat with human users in English, but had improvised their own language among themselves. The timing of the \u00a0setback was perfect, as it underscored the gulf between Musk\u2019s and Zuckerberg\u2019s understanding of AI.\n\nEdison became \u201cThe Father of the Electric Age\u201d by making his path-breaking technology marketable, and buying patents for inventions in which he saw potential. In much the same way, Zuckerberg can be termed \u201cThe Father of Social Media\u201d for the manner in which he founded Facebook, and continued by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp. Just like Edison, he wants to use the most cutting-edge technology of his time to grow his empire of profit.\n\nMeanwhile, Musk is a visionary like Tesla. He founded PayPal and revolutionised online commerce. He founded SpaceX with dreams of mankind exploring the cosmos. Through his entire career, he\u2019s shown an uncanny foresight for predicting the future, and we would do well to pay heed to him now.\n\nFor much as I love the Terminator, when it comes to killer robots, \u201cI\u2019ll be back,\u201d is a much, much worse thing to hear than, \u201cHasta la vista, baby.\u201d\n\n\u00a0<\/strong>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI is to the 21st century what electricity was to the 19th. That is, cutting-edge tech that has the potential to rewire your neurons, and Silicon Valley giants Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk can\u2019t see eye-to-eye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":1236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[2097,2098,2099,1809,2100,354,2101,2102,1820,2103],"class_list":["post-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-bots","tag-edison","tag-elon-musk","tag-facebook","tag-language","tag-mark","tag-tesla","tag-zuckerberg"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Bots Must be Crazy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AI is to the 21st century what electricity was to the 19th. 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