Artificial intelligence could replace 80% of human jobs in the next few years, says Ben Goertzel, a leading AI researcher and American-Brazilian researcher.
Mathematician, cognitive scientist, and renowned robot creator Goertzel, 56, is a pioneer of what he set out to create “artificial general intelligence” (AGI), an artificial intelligence with human cognitive abilities. Founder and CEO of SingularityNET, an independent research group.
With long hair and a leopard-print cowboy hat, Goertzel went into provocateur mode at the world’s largest annual technology conference, the Web Summit, in Rio de Janeiro last week, and told AFP in an interview that AGI is only a few years away. He said he opposed AGI. Recent efforts to curb artificial intelligence research.
– As smart as a human? –
Q: How different is it from artificial intelligence with human cognitive abilities?
“If we really want machines to be as smart as humans and be as agile in the unknown, machines need to be able to make huge leaps beyond training and programming. Not yet, but I think there is reason to believe that it will take years, not decades, to get there. ”
～AI risk～
Q: What are your thoughts on the debate around AI and its risks, such as ChatGPT? Should we pause research for six months, as some have argued?
“This is kind of dangerous superhuman AI, so I don’t think it should be paused… These are very interesting AI systems, but they are not capable of complex multitasking, so human-level general intelligence They cannot invent anything completely new outside of their training data.
“They can also spread misinformation and people say that information should be suspended because of that. It’s very strange to me. Why didn’t you ban the internet? The Internet does exactly this, it makes more information readily available, and it spreads bullshit and misinformation.
“I think we should have a free society. It shouldn’t be banned, just like the internet shouldn’t be banned.”
-Threat to employment-
Q: Isn’t the possibility of replacing people’s jobs a threat?
“My guess is that without AGI, 80% of the jobs people do could be obsolete. For this kind of system it will probably be obsolete.
“I don’t see it as a threat. I see it as a benefit. People can find more things to do with their lives than work for a living…with paperwork.” Almost all jobs should be automated.”
“My problem is that we are in an interim period when AI will continue to obsolete human jobs. I don’t know how it will solve all social problems.”
– AI Positive –
Q: What can robots do for society today, and what will they be able to do in the future when AGI becomes a reality?
“With AI, we can do many things.
“Like Grace (robot nurse) at Web Summit Rio. In the United States, many seniors sit alone in nursing homes. And they are doing well. , meals, big screen TVs, but they are bad in terms of emotional and social support. We can help you make phone calls with your family You can improve people’s lives by talking to their children or ordering something online.When they reach AGI they are even better will be friends.
“In that case, we are not ruling out human jobs, basically because there are not enough people who want to be nurses or nursing assistants.
“I think education will be a great market for humanoid robots, not just domestic help.”
-Regulation-
Q: What regulation is needed for AI to have a positive impact?
“What we need is for society to develop these AIs to do good things, and for AI governance to become participatory in some way. All of this is technically possible. The companies that fund most of the AI research aren’t doing that.” They’re not interested in doing good, they’re interested in maximizing shareholder value. . ”
