Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) has been tantalizing mankind for decades as a mysterious and elusive being repeatedly appearing in sci-fi movies; will it be a lovable angel that loyally serves man or an abhorrent demon that one day will take over the world and destroy humanity?

    Many of the previous sci-fi movies featuring AI have presented us with evil-minded AI-driven enemies intent on extinguishing mankind, such as “The Terminator” franchise, “The Matrix,” “Blade Runner,” to mention a few.

    Many experts have expressed their concern about AI’s potential risks for humans. Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has warned that the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.

    His worries were echoed by Tesla boss Elon Musk, who declared rampant AI to be the “biggest existential threat” facing mankind.

    These sci-tech gurus must have reason to be anxious. They know how paltry human wits can be when set against such technologies as supercomputers, Big Data and cloud computing, which are evolving at a breathtaking pace.

    They believe AI will be too powerful for their creators to control soon.

    If their worries were too remote for the general public to sense when AI is far away from ordinary people, then some recent developments have driven home to them how AI dwarfs the smartest people on Earth intelligently and makes man redundant in many aspects of society.

    In March 2016, AlphaGo, a computer program developed by Google DeepMind, beat Lee Sedol, a 9-dan Korean professional player. If the overwhelming 4-1 victory initially discouraged human players, then a mysterious player named “Master,” later confirmed to be an upgraded version of AlphaGo, has driven human players to despair after it had an astonishing 60-game winning streak, beating dozens of top-notch players from China, South Korea and Japan.

    If it is still too early to worry about the doomsday caused by rebellious robots in the future, there is an imminent danger for humankind: massive lay-offs caused by the widespread adoption of AI devices.

    A Japanese insurance company, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, is reportedly replacing 34 human insurance claims workers with IBM’s Watson Explorer, starting this month.

    It has also been reported that some newly developed AI programs can replace high-paying financial analysts easily as AI “analysts” can produce a report of the same quality as that by a human analyst with a fraction of time that takes a human. Some bold predictors say AI will take over 99 percent of human mental work.

    If AI can handle knowledge-based work without a hitch, will it be a breeze for it to eliminate millions of jobs currently occupied by blue-collar workers?

    The day is approaching quickly. In China as well as in other countries, some unmanned factories and warehouses are in operation now, and more are in the pipeline.

    Given that AI enthusiasts around the world are breaking their necks to develop unmanned vehicles, planes, offices, etc., is there a necessity for world leaders to give a serious thought to the issue of protecting humankind from the threat of AI, or the force behind AI — capital.

    Imagine the paradox in the near future. America’s online e-business giant Amazon has just unveiled a grocery store without checkout counters, letting shoppers just grab the items they want and leave; the order gets charged to their Amazon account afterwards.

    It means the loss of millions of jobs in stores around the world currently done by human beings. The laid-off people can hardly find new jobs since other positions are being filled by AI as well. Without jobs, people will have no income, who would be the users of these unmanned services?

    I may be overanxious about the threat of AI, considering the history of human development. Every previous technological revolution was met with worries about the fate of humankind, but man has survived well and done better.

    It’s inevitable AI will penetrate into every aspect of our lives with its unparalleled advancement. With its infinite prowess, AI will surely prosper to the benefit of mankind.

    However, it won’t hurt to prepare against a rainy day. Let’s enjoy all the benefits AI offers us without being bothered by the potential hassles it may bring.

    The key is to guard against the wrong hands getting behind AI.

    (The author is an English tutor and a freelance writer.)