Stephen Hawking opens artificial intelligence hub

British scientist Stephen Hawking attends the launch of The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) at the University of Cambridge, in Cambridge, eastern England, on October 19, 2016. The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI), which launched today, is a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, and the University of California, Berkeley. The centre will explore the implications of the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI). / AFP PHOTO / NIKLAS HALLE'N

 

Cambridge / AFP

Professor Stephen Hawking has opened a new artificial intelligence research centre at Britain’s Cambridge University. The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) will delve into AI applications ranging from increasingly “smart” smartphones to robot surgeons and “Terminator” style military droids. Funded by a £10 million (11.2 million-euro, $12.3-million) grant from the Leverhulme Trust, the centre’s express aim is to ensure AI is used to benefit humanity. Opening the new centre, Hawking said it was not possible to predict what might be achieved with AI.
“Perhaps with the tools of this new technological revolution, we will be able to undo some of the damage done to the natural world by the last one — industrialisation. “And surely we will aim to finally eradicate disease and poverty. Every aspect of our lives will be transformed.
“In short, success in creating AI could the biggest event in the history of our civilisation,” Hawking said. The centre is a collaboration between the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, and Berkeley, California. It will bring together researchers from multiple disciplines to work with industry representatives and policymakers on projects ranging from regulation of autonomous weapons to the implications of AI for democracy.
“AI is hugely exciting. Its practical applications can help us to tackle important social problems, as well as easing many tasks in everyday life,” said Margaret Boden, a professor of cognitive sciences and consultant to the CFI. The technology has led to major advances in “the sciences of mind and life”, she said, but, misused, also “presents grave dangers”. “CFI aims to pre-empt these dangers, by guiding AI-development in human-friendly ways,” she added.
Fears of robots freeing themselves from their creators have inspired a host of films and literature — “2001: a Space Odyssey” to name but one. Hawking warned technological developments also posed a risk to our
civilisation. “Alongside the benefits, AI will also bring dangers, like powerful autonomous weapons, or new ways for the few to oppress the many. “It will bring disruption to our economy. And in the future, AI could develop a will of its own — a will that is in conflict with ours,” he said.
But catastrophic scenarios aside, the development of AI, which allows robots to execute almost all human tasks, directly threatens millions of jobs.

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