After watching S07E03 of Game of Thrones, it got me thinking, our political world is a lot like Westeros- the more powerful governments are plotting to overthrow each other, fighting over resources, marking territory on the “weaker” land, creating terror then pretend to fight against it… and while we are busy scheming and fighting among ourselves, there is actually a bigger “enemy” out there, which are the White Walkers. In my opinion, Artificial Intelligence is the White Walkers of our time. Unfortunately, we have not found our Valyrian steel or Dragonglass yet.
(Background image: HBO)
It might seem quite farfetched to compare AI to the White Walkers, but think again, about the imminent danger, the fact that “AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization," warns Elon Musk, aka Jon Snow who’s ringing the alarm bells.
Unlike the White Walkers, AI won’t wipe off humanity in one strike, but do so stealthily, strategically, wearing a benevolent mask at first, till one day they declare ownership of this planet.
Iyt’s not only possible, but inevitable. Let’s face it, we have opened the Pandora’s Box.
In Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence, he has argued that:
The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. Other animals have stronger muscles or sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains one day come to surpass human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become very powerful. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on us humans than on the gorillas themselves, so the fate of our species then would come to depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.
In Game of Thrones, Daenerys is wise enough to take Tyrion's advice and collaborate with Jon Snow. How about our world leaders? How about Alphabet, Baidu, Tesla, Facebook, etc., will they come together in preserving humanity while fighting to become the world's largest and "smartest" company?
I want to be optimistic, but in a world where a Bitcoin blockchain could split into 2 (even after years of debate,) i seriously doubt humanity has reached that level of consciousness yet... we just love to feel "right" and prove ourselves to be superior somehow, don't we?