Don't Fear the Technological Singularity

One day, Artificial Intelligence will surpass human intelligence.  The moment it does will be called the Technological Singularity, or the Singularity.  Some of the smartest men to ever walk the Earth fear this day.  However, I don't have any feeling that even remotely resembles fear when I think about it.  I am excited for the Singularity. In my mind, the Singularity can't come soon enough.  There is limitless opportunity for the human race when this moment occurs.  Society will benefit, without a doubt from AI that is smarter than humans.  Current estimates place the Singularity around the year 2045.  This is because of Moore's Law, which states that computer chips double the amount of transistors on them every eighteen months, so their speed increases exponentially.  However, human intelligence increases at a linear rate, so computers will inevitably catch up to us.

Graph of the relationship between human intelligence and computer capabilities.

However, this intelligence won't just fix the atrocity that is "Siri," but aid in the economy's growth, and advance medicine in a way that would be previously unheard of.  However, the fear people have of AI is still very common, which I believe it is of the unknown nature of AI.  The general fear of The Singularity is not unwarranted, however, more likely than not, the singularity and artificial intelligence will be a huge benefit to society that will not be possible without artificial intelligence.

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” ~ H.P. Lovecraft

 Artificial Intelligence has a pretty bad reputation.  Just the thought of sentient computers instills tremendous fear in some people.  But, there is a reason for it all.  It is Man's natural instinct to fear what it does not understand.  This helped our species survive this far, but the fear doesn't help us any longer.  Similar to the way darkness makes us feel uneasy, the unknown worries people.  AI in practice is so alien to us, we cannot fathom the idea of not being the smartest species on the planet. Our minds process information by associating and grouping objects and concepts together.  AI however, does not fit into our preconceived notions on how the world works.  Unable to fully comprehend the concept of AI, we group it along with robots and AI in movies such as HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, or The Terminator from The Terminator, and recently, Ava from the film Ex Machina. 

Ava

HAL 9000

The Terminator

Every single one of these characters has killed more than 5 people in cold blood, and they are all compelling characters, each instilling fear and suspense.  The Terminator and HAL 9000 are so prominent, people are quick to think that this is what AI will be like regardless of circumstance. There are some legitimate fears of AI held by the planets smartest people, but they are all "what ifs."  "What if AI becomes a corporate entity that forces people to buy things?" Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and the cofounder of PayPal and Solar City has been very outspoken of the dangers of AI, but he created an open source AI that he feels would be beneficial to society.  This just shows that AI has tremendous potential.  Some fears of AI are perfectly legitimate, but the fears the general public have are not warranted.

With the Singularity nearing, it is hard not to get excited about the potential it has on our economy. For starters, AI would manage in a much safer, much more profitable way.  This would prevent anything like the stock market crash of 2008.  If Michael Burry could predict the fall of the housing market, then surly hyperintelligent computers could predict it within a fraction of a second.  Beyond bettering the stock market, AI would create jobs in manufacturing, coding, and oversight.  Similar to the way Apple releases a new version of their operating systems every September, people have to create updates patching glitches, increasing performance, and prolonging battery life for their AI.  All of those software engineers get jobs, along with managers, HR, accountants, security, and janitors.  That is just the beginning.  For every version of AI, hundreds of jobs will be created to work on it.  For example, when the printing press was invented in 1440, scribes went out of business, but manufacturing, transporting, marketing, and selling books replaced those jobs, along with a drop in the price of newspapers. Sure, hedge fund managers and taxi/Über drivers might go out of business, but replacing them will be IT jobs, but driverless cars still need to change the oil or fix their transmission, and professional tax avoiders won't be replaced, hopefully replaced with an occupation that pays taxes. But for the jobs AI take, human jobs will probably pay more because the majority of human work will be skilled labor.  Personally, I am ready for an AI economy.

Post-Singularity AI will not only be great for the economy, but also for the field of medicine as a whole.  New technologies are being released every year, including nanobots that can cure cancer.  They are injected into a patient's bloodstream and travel to the spot of the cancer.  After that, they deliver a drug that destroys tissue right into the cancer.  The robots are smaller than a strand of the Zika Virus.  This was done over years by scientists in an Israeli university.  With AI, the technology would be finished within a week of the project's start.

With AI smarter than humans working alongside brilliant doctors, vaccines and cures for patients with diseases that were previously considered terminal will be created.  AI will be able to simulate the results for millions of combinations of chemicals used to create vaccines at once, a process that currently could take days to do now.  Furthermore treatment for patients with diseases that are highly contagious will soon be safer for doctors and patients.  The chance of an Epidemic on the same scale as Ebola, SARS, or HIV/AIDS will diminish greatly.  The ultimate goal in medicine is to prevent anyone from getting sick or dying of disease or infection.  With AI at the helm of vaccine production, that goal is achievable.

Although some people fear the Technological Singularity, which is fine, it isn't something to fear, rather than something to look forward to.  People fear the Singularity and AI in general, probably because they have not looked into it and don't understand it.  However, its return on the economy will be fantastic and its effect on medicine will save millions of lives a year.  Rather than fear the Singularity, we should be looking forward to it.

Works Cited

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“HAL 9000.” Wikimedia Commons, 19 Nov. 2015, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:hal9000.svg.

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Percival, Angela. “Fear of the Unknown and How the Mind Works.” - Counselling Directory, Counseling Directory, 9 Apr. 2013, www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellor-articles/fear-of-the-unknown-and-how-the-mind-works.

“Quotes About Fear Of Unknown (47 Quotes).” Quotes About Fear Of Unknown, Goodreads Inc., www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/fear-of-unknown.

Urban, Tim. “The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Part 2 - Wait But Why.” The AI Revolution: Our Immortality or Extinction, Wait But Why, 27 Jan. 2015, waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html.

Winters, Jeffrey. “Why We Fear the Unknown.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, LLC, 9 June 2016, www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200205/why-we-fear-the-unknown.