Some very intelligent people believe that advances in artificial intelligence could be humankind’s downfall.
Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates have all expressed their concerns about the future of AI in the past, and while it may seem a little far fetched at the moment as Siri fails to understand your simple question for the umpteenth time, that’s a fairly short sighted way of looking at things. After all, as Duncan pointed out in his piece, Ten things you need to understand about the future of AI, technological progress isn’t linear: in fact, it’s getting faster all the time. There’s evidence to suggest that between 2000 and 2014, the field of AI progressed as much as it did for the entirety of the 20th Century – and it’ll do the same again between now and 2021.
That’s pretty worrying for anyone who has a ‘glass half empty’ view on the future of human life on Earth, but if you want to look on the bright side, we’re still a long way off yet. And here’s some proof to back that up. An artificial intelligence without an effective robotic body is pretty limited in what it can do, and even considering the fairly low bar for parity our own forms offer, robotics are still some way off.
Take the simple task of feeding, for example:
The old joke used to say that the way to tackle a Darley invasion was to live on the second floor, but even if you provide some kind of mechanical legs, you’re probably safe:
In fact, that’s something of a theme:
Professional athletes have got even less to worry about:
All in all, we probably don’t have too much to worry about from robots in the short term… except broken toes:
READ NEXT: Ten things you need to understand about the future of Artificial Intelligence
Image: K Rupp used under Creative Commons
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