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The New Prometheus: Google CEO Says AI is More Profound than Electricity or Fire

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the modern-day-punishment dept.

takyon writes:

Fire good. AI better:

Google CEO Sundar Pichai says artificial intelligence is going to have a bigger impact on the world than some of the most ubiquitous innovations in history. "AI is one of the most important things humanity is working on. It is more profound than, I dunno, electricity or fire," says Pichai, speaking at a town hall event in San Francisco in January.

A number of very notable tech leaders have made bold statements about the potential of artificial intelligence. Tesla boss Elon Musks says AI is more dangerous than North Korea. Famous physicist Stephen Hawking says AI could be the "worst event in the history of our civilization." And Y Combinator President Sam Altman likens AI to nuclear fission.

Even in such company, Pichai's comment seems remarkable. Interviewer and Recode executive editor Kara Swisher stopped Pichai when he made the comment. "Fire? Fire is pretty good," she retorts. Pichai sticks by his assertion. "Well, it kills people, too," Pichai says of fire. "We have learned to harness fire for the benefits of humanity but we had to overcome its downsides too. So my point is, AI is really important, but we have to be concerned about it."

Also at CNN and Gizmodo.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday February 03 2018, @11:10AM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 03 2018, @11:10AM (#632477) Journal

    I'm sorry, no, Strong AI [wikipedia.org] is defined for quite some time.
    And we aren't much closer to it.
    Bu I can see why CEO with a finger in massive NNs today are very happy to claim AI - works wonders for the stock value.

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday February 03 2018, @01:19PM (1 child)

    by Gaaark (41) on Saturday February 03 2018, @01:19PM (#632510) Journal

    I prefer to call it Strong Blockchain: seems to do better for IPO's.
    ;)

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    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 03 2018, @05:12PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday February 03 2018, @05:12PM (#632597) Journal

      Artificial Blockchain Intelligence? :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 03 2018, @05:19PM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday February 03 2018, @05:19PM (#632603) Journal

    Yes, but nobody (except you, apparently) was talking about strong AI. Saying only strong AI is true AI is like saying all those industrial robots are no robots, because they don't look anything like the robots in SF movies.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.