The Future of Artificial Intelligence: A New Digital Species
AI should be seen as a “new kind of digital species” that will become “infinitely knowledgeable” according to a senior Microsoft chief. Mustafa Suleyman believes we’ll eventually see AI as our “digital companions” or “new partners,” rather than a tool, he revealed in a recent TED Talk.
AI as Our Digital Companions
Mustafa Suleyman is Microsoft’s AI CEO and co-founded Deepmind, the now-Google owned top secret artificial intelligence research lab. In an 18-minute discussion about the tech, he predicted that AI will have a “near-perfect IQ” but it’ll also have exceptional emotional intelligence too. “They’ll be kind, supportive, empathetic,” he said.
Demystifying AI
Suleyman sought to demystify AI amid a backdrop of growing concern about its impact on issues ranging from jobs to AI-generated deepfakes during a busy year of elections. “AIs are clearly more dynamic, more ambiguous, more integrated and more emergent than mere tools, which are entirely subject to human control,” he explained.
A New Digital Species
“So to contain this wave, to put human agency at its center and to mitigate the inevitable unintended consequences that are likely to arise, we should start to think about them as we might a new kind of digital species.”
The Advanced Capabilities of AI
He goes onto say they “consume unimaginably large amounts of information” and possess memory, personality, and creativity. “They do all this at levels of sophistication that are far beyond anything that we’ve ever known from a mere tool,” he continued.
AI for Good
While there are worries about AI, the technology is already being used for good. Researchers have been exploring new ways for it to be used in healthcare. Just this week, a study was published suggesting that an AI-powered test could detect three major types of cancer – bowel, stomach, and pancreatic – within minutes.