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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."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:58PM
Until every human has the exact same daily rations, clothing, housing, beautiful partners, there is GREED.
You couldn't possibly be more wrong.
a word everyone likes to toss around, but nobody understands
Well, you certainly don't.
First, greed is a character defect.
It is one of The Seven Deadly Sins.
What greed is is wanting more than you need for a reasonably comfortable existence.
(Wanting more money than you can possibly spend is an extreme case.)
...and there are a great many people on the planet who are quite satisfied with their lot in life.
(In years past, that was called "The Middle Class" and that bunch was quite large--before The 1 Percent demonstrated once again what greed actually looks like.)
The reason that you think greed is normal is that you are abnormal.
{Picture of Marty Feldman stealing the wrong brain goes here}
Allowing oneself to be easily manipulated by TeeVee|Madison Avenue will twist a person into the peculiar shape in which you find yourself.
...and what you think is "greed" is actually "sustenance".
Gawd, the schools where you grew up were clearly lousy.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]