The Danger of Mythologizing A.I.

In The Myth of AI, computer scientist and author of Who Owns the Future?, Jason Lanier, warns against the danger of respected figures like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk inciting paranoia through dogmatically simplistic, near-religious claims about its future impact upon society.Lanier proposes “that the biggest threat of AI is probably the one that’s due to AI not actually existing, to the idea being a fraud, or at least such a poorly constructed idea that it’s phony. In other words, what I’m proposing is that if AI was a real thing, then it probably would be less of a threat to us than it is as a fake thing.” His ensuing analysis inspires discussion from a variety of distinguished scientists, professors, authors and industrialists in Edge.com’s Reality Club Discussion section below.