Essay Exampple on Innovation: Key to Human Development and AGI

Introduction

Innovation has always been at the heart of human development since the beginning of time. Innovation in technology, in particular, has affected the way people live by providing opportunities to transform their way of life, often in ways which could not be predicted before. Although some of the innovation in technologies are quite new, most are totally based on new developments in technologies which already exist. Indeed, one such issue revolves around artificial general intelligence. Generally, at the heart of this artificial intelligence is the perception that with time, human beings will be able to develop a machine which is as smart as they are. Even more, artificial intelligence is perceived to have a comprehension that is not only broad but also adaptable. Ideally, until now, human beings have discovered countless systems which perform better in certain fields, however, they can generate certain ethical related issues as portrayed by different studies on artificial general intelligence.

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Artificial general intelligence is always considered to be a holy grail by many experts and artificial intelligence researchers. Although most of the narrow forms of artificial intelligence systems existing today are capable of doing extraordinary tasks such as playing video games, surfing the internet and driving cars, none is capable of conducting what artificial general intelligence (AGI) is perceived to do; which is performing multiple tasks simultaneously. According to Goertzel (2007), an AGI is a machine that is not only capable of understanding the world from the human perspective but also capable of carrying out several tasks. As a matter of fact, a single AGI is often perceived to have the capacity of accomplishing a number of cognitive tasks and at the same extent as human beings. Whether these imaginations will bear any resemblance to the most awaited AGI is unknowable.

What could an AGI do?

While artificial general intelligence, in theory, can conduct several tasks just like human beings, some of the functions may be too complicated for humans. In essence, artificial intelligence is perceived to be capable of utilizing both human-like flexibility in terms of reasoning and thinking and unique computational programs that help it perform better. For instance, as Goertzel (2007) claims, if AGI is used in robots, it comes along with programs that can enable these new breeds of machines to carry out any task, and around the clock. This indicates that as time goes by, the unique AGI would be capable of performing almost every role as required by humans. Moreover, even though the current artificial intelligence (AL) often work effectively, especially alongside human controllers, the development of AGI might result in significant social ramifications and might render human labor obsolete.

The Timeline for AGI

The timeline for the invention of artificial intelligence is never specific with different researchers having their opinions ranging between a few decades and never. In most cases, this can be attributed to poor planning and lack of a clear path to AGI. Although the current narrow AL systems often give the impression that scientists are on the verge of developing AGI as they can complete certain unique tasks such as to recognize the language, describe photos and videos, and understand speech, this is too far from the truth. Indeed, the machine learning systems in use today are always one-noted and can only perform a single task effectively after extensive programming. In fact, this is unlike the AGI which is perceived to carry out any task required and with same intelligence compared to that of humans. This shows that the current AL programs in use are not necessarily an indication of immediate development in AGI.

Ethical Issues in Artificial General Intelligence

The ethical issues concerning a future possibility of developing artificial general intelligence with capabilities far much better than human beings are uniquely different from those ethical issues arising in today's narrow AL. Ideally, since the new discovery would be performing with superhuman efficiency, it is considered to be unique and would lead to significant progress in all scientific as well as technological fields. Even so, it can still lead to certain ethical issue such as a significant job displacement. The advent of the AL system during the scientific and industrial revolutions in the 18th and 19th century respectively completely changed the society, but at the same time, brought the idea of automatization which rendered many people jobless (Yampolskiy & Fox, 2012). Until now, the issue of automatization has been recurrent in the minds of the majority who believe that further technological advancements will completely render human labor obsolete. Similarly, the issue of regulation might arise with ADI since the existing laws were not implemented with ADI in mind. This, therefore, means that governments, policymakers, and researchers should devise regulations that will ensure that ADI provides only benefits to humanity. Additionally, some people are concerned about the possibility of super intelligence. In particular, these individuals believe that ADI may reach a state where it starts to recursively improve, thereby reaching the levels that are far much above human intelligence.

Conclusion

Until now, human beings have discovered countless systems which perform better in certain fields, however, they can generate certain ethical related issues as portrayed by different studies on artificial general intelligence. Artificial general intelligence, for example, is a unique technology that is perceived to change humanity and also lead to adverse scientific and technological transformations, however, it may bring along certain ethical issues such as job displacement, issues of regulations and super intelligence.

References

Goertzel, B. (2007). Artificial general intelligence (Vol. 2). C. Pennachin (Ed.). New York: Springer.

Yampolskiy, R. V., & Fox, J. (2012). Artificial general intelligence and the human mental model. In Singularity Hypotheses (pp. 129-145). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.