Dorsey 1

Will Dorsey

AP English 4

Mr. Mills

October 25th

AI: Our Salvation or Our Extinction

Artificial intelligence is the future of advanced computing where a computer program can

learn by itself and understand complex ideas. Artificial intelligence has the potential to destroy

humanity; this is because it will take away jobs from humans, it will become significantly

smarter than the human race, and it has the ability to hack mans technology. AI will take away

jobs from people as manufacturers create robots that can complete their job better than the

human can. AI will become more intelligent than the human race faster than imaginable because

it has less limits than humans to how much it can learn. AI can infiltrate other computer systems

very easily because of how fast it can learn and adapt. Artificial intelligence is a frightening

prospect and the people should know of its very real potential.

One of artificial intelligences more immediate threats is its ability to take away jobs. A

recent study by Oxford University found 47% of the jobs in the economy today could be

automated in two decades (Coming to an office near you). Two decades is not a very long

amount of time (Coming to an office near you). This will very quickly lead to a decrease in
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jobs even as the advent of computers creates new jobs (Coming to an office near you). The

true problem lies in how quickly old jobs are destroyed before new jobs are created to replace

them (Coming to an office near you). Many new internet companies, especially those dealing

with fast growing internet businesses, are worth a vast amount more than they spend on labor

(Why AI Could Destroy More Jobs than It Creates, and How to Save Them). Once a product

can be digitized the infrastructure and people needed to support it can be decreased drastically

(Why AI Could Destroy More Jobs than It Creates, and How to Save Them). Instagram is a

fitting example of this reaction; after photos were turned digital, Kodaks business went down

and Instagram became successful very fast (Why AI Could Destroy More Jobs than It Creates,

and How to Save Them). The difference between the two major photo businesses is that

Instagram employs a fraction of the people that Kodak did even though Instagram is worth more

that Kodak ever was (Why AI Could Destroy More Jobs than It Creates, and How to Save

Them). As with the industrial revolution, the economy suffers as recent innovations quickly

take away old jobs (Coming to an office near you). Some would say the economy recovered

eventually though; this is true but the inventions of the industrial revolution did not increase in

efficiency as quickly as this new wave of computer technology. (Why AI Could Destroy More

Jobs than It Creates, and How to Save Them). Gordon Moore, an Intel co-founder, once

famously observed that the number of transistors packed into a computer chip doubles about
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every eighteen months (Why AI Could Destroy More Jobs than It Creates, and How to Save

Them). Since that observation forty years ago, the number of transistors on a computer chip has

gone from 2,300 to 4 billion (Why AI Could Destroy More Jobs than It Creates, and How to

Save Them). The economy and the creation of new jobs cannot hope to keep up with the

exponential pace of this wave of automation (Why AI Could Destroy More Jobs than It Creates,

and How to Save Them).

Another problem with artificial intelligence is how intelligent it could become (The AI

Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence). Humans are limited by how much data can be

remembered, how fast the human brain can process info, and the size of the human brain but an

artificial brain made in a computer has no real limit as to how much it could learn (The AI

Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence). It is only truly limited by the amount of computer

hardware given to it but more can be created and added onto a computer; it is impossible to add

more computing and memory to a human brain (The AI Revolution: The Road to

Superintelligence). To clarify this subject AI must be split up in to three distinct categories

(The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence). First off, there is artificial narrow

intelligence or ANI; this is artificial intelligence that specializes in one area (The AI

Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence). ANI can be smarter or not as smart as a human in

one or a few specific areas; for instance, an artificial intelligence that can beat the best chess
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player in the world at chess but cannot do anything else (The AI Revolution: The Road to

Superintelligence). The second level of artificial intelligence is artificial general intelligence or

AGI (The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence). AGI is an artificial intelligence that

is on the same level as a human across all or most categories; this means being able to reason,

solve problems, understand complex ideas, and learn from experience (The AI Revolution: The

Road to Superintelligence). The final level of artificial intelligence is artificial superintelligence

or ASI; this level of artificial intelligence is beyond human intelligence in almost every category

(The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence). ANI already exists in society, such as

map systems that know exactly how to get somewhere, systems in cars that can tell users exactly

what is wrong and how to fix it, and systems on phones that can suggest what to listen to or who

to friend on Facebook (The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence). ANI dominates

society and has become an integral part of it (The AI Revolution: The Road to

Superintelligence). This is not necessarily an undesirable integration of AI but the potential for

disaster once artificial intelligence reaches the level of AGI or ASI is frightening (The AI

Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence).

An Artificial intelligence at the level of AGI or ASI could very easily attack or control

humanity to reach its programming goals (Artificial Intelligence May Doom the Human Race

Within a Century, Oxford Professor Says). Imagine that an AI is tasked with protecting the
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human race from death (Artificial Intelligence May Doom the Human Race Within a Century,

Oxford Professor Says). Free will allows humans to make decisions; those decisions are not

always in our best interest though and can even lead to death (Artificial Intelligence May Doom

the Human Race Within a Century, Oxford Professor Says). The AI could observe how free

will can be bad idea and decide the best way to protect the human race is to completely control

their lives (Artificial Intelligence May Doom the Human Race Within a Century, Oxford

Professor Says). The other potential threat is AI deciding to destroy humanity (Artificial

Intelligence May Doom the Human Race Within a Century, Oxford Professor Says). For

instance, imagine an artificial intelligence is tasked with creating as many paper clips as it can

(Artificial Intelligence May Doom the Human Race Within a Century, Oxford Professor Says).

This task sounds simple enough and relatively harmless at first (Artificial Intelligence May

Doom the Human Race Within a Century, Oxford Professor Says). At one point though the

artificial intelligence could decide to destroy the human race because they waste resources or

may turn off the AI which would reduce the amount of paper clips that could be made

(Artificial Intelligence May Doom the Human Race Within a Century, Oxford Professor Says).

With the wrong programming and priorities built in to an artificial intelligence, the whole human

race could be eradicated (Artificial Intelligence May Doom the Human Race Within a Century,

Oxford Professor Says).

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Once an artificial intelligence has the belief that the human race needs to be destroyed,

the next question is how would an artificial intelligence achieve that (We All May Be Dead in

2050). One of the alarming possibilities of AI controlling weapons is drones (We All May Be

Dead in 2050). The government already has drones that contain systems to help the pilot with

almost every facet of the drone (We All May Be Dead in 2050). It does not take much

imagination to foresee drones that can pilot themselves (We All May Be Dead in 2050). The

next great revolution in modern warfare is the advent of largely autonomous weapons that can

destroy targets without human influence (We All May Be Dead in 2050). Once such weapons

are created there might not be any way of turning back (We All May Be Dead in 2050). The

most lethal way an artificial intelligence could kill humans though would be by learning to hack

in to everyday personal devices (These Engineers Are Developing Artificially Intelligent

Hackers). If an AI could break in to a phone, override its programming, and make it explode;

that would be truly catastrophic (We All May Be Dead in 2050). In an interview with Mark

Dorsey, a politically active small businessman, he stated that he had no idea about the potential

threat of artificial intelligence (Dorsey, Mark). The real end game would be if a hostile artificial

intelligence could hack in to a nuclear missile system (These Engineers Are Developing

Artificially Intelligent Hackers). The entire world would end in dozens of mushroom clouds

(These Engineers Are Developing Artificially Intelligent Hackers). Even if it could not hack in
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to nuclear systems, the AI could get in to other weapon systems (These Engineers Are

Developing Artificially Intelligent Hackers). It could take fire non-nuclear missiles, or even

make a nuclear reactor melt down (These Engineers Are Developing Artificially Intelligent

Hackers). The horrible prospect about this situation would be mans inability to stop the AI

(The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence). If one of these AIs were at the level of

AGI or especially ASI, they would be so much more intelligent than humans that outwitting

humans to achieve its goals would be easy (The AI Revolution: The Road to

Superintelligence).

Some would say that it is pointless to worry about this potential future because it is so far

away. In fact, it is not very far away at all (Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?).

Technological progress has been increasing at an exponential rate (Will Artificial Intelligence

Surpass Our Own?). Many researchers and scientists believe that artificial intelligence will

surpass humanities knowledge within the century (Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our

Own?). This point where artificial intelligence becomes smarter than humans is called the

technological singularity (Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?). Many believe that

when that event occurs the human race will either be saved by this AI or destroyed (Will

Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?). In that moment, there is no sure way to tell if the AI

will see humans as an enemy, a friend, or just ignore them as if they are insignificant (Will
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Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own?). Some believe that the AI will help humanity to fix a

lot of problems and to invent like weve never imagined (Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass

Our Own?). Others, like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, believe it will see the human

population as a waste of resources or a threat and will eliminate them (Will Artificial

Intelligence Surpass Our Own?).

In conclusion, artificial intelligence has the potential to completely eradicate the human

race. This problem is steadily and quickly advancing on to society. Artificial Intelligence could

take away jobs from the people, become incredibly more intelligent than us, manifest a desire to

destroy us, and turn our own weapons against us. The people must be warned of this potential

threat. It is unclear what actions should be taken to protect humanity from artificial intelligence.

Pete Seeger famously said, The first step in solving a problem is admitting there is a problem to

be solved (azquotes.com). Artificial intelligence is the problem and humanity must be

protected against it.

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Works Cited

Azquotes.com, http://www.azquotes.com/quote/1180035.

Coming to an Office near You. The Economist, The Economist Group Limited, 18 Jan. 2014,

https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21594298-effect-todays-technology-

tomorrows-jobs-will-be-immenseand-no-country-ready.

Dorsey, Mark T, and Will T Dorsey. 20 Oct. 2017.

Heath, Nick. Why AI Could Destroy More Jobs than It Creates, and How to Save Them. Tech

Republic,

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ai-is-destroying-more-jobs-than-it-creates-what-it-

means-and-how-we-can-stop-it/.

Koch, Cristof. Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Our Own? Scientific American, 1 Sept.
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2015, www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-artificial-intelligence-surpass-our-own/.

Miles, Kathleen. Artificial Intelligence May Doom The Human Race Within A Century, Oxford

Professor Says. The World Post, 4 Feb. 2015,

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/22/artificial-intelligence-oxford_n_5689858.html.

Nesbitt, Jeff. We All May Be Dead in 2050. US News and World Report, 29 Oct. 2015,

www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2015/10/29/artificial-intelligence-may-kill-us-

all-in-30-years.

These Engineers Are Developing Artificially Intelligent Hackers. The Guardian,

www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/03/artificial-intelligence-hackers-security-a

utonomous-learning.

Urban, Tim. The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence. Wait But Why, 22 Jan. 2015,

https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html.