Is it perseverance then that sets us apart? The fact of stubbornly continuing to go for a goal, not listening to those who think to prove that it is wrong and eventually once in a billion times being right and forcing a major breakthrough in our world or business. Maybe that will not be easy to copy, but will it still be needed if all the data are available and simulations can be processed at the speed of light?
Then again, if perseverance is no longer needed, where will all the fun be if everything becomes predictable and automatic? Can robots have fun the way we can? Do they have feelings? Where does our sense for fun come from? DNA? Instinct? Natural evolution? Fear?
What about the risk of one company becoming very dominant at AI, outperforming all the others? Ok we have anti-trust laws, but why would such an AI company abide by that law?
Ok, AI could probably do very well in our courts too, to apply our laws and regulations consistently and fast, because AI robots could strictly apply the rules without emotion and indeed very quickly. What about precedents? And what about cases where it becomes obvious that it is not the letter of the law but the spirit that is important? That is when we humans do kind of crowd thinking, searching and benchmarking to tackle those real new cases.
Can AI have a soul? Can it be religious? I remember reading a discussion in that field that went as follows: “Does Google know everything? Well it knows quite a bit of information, very much more than the old encyclopedia books, that held all information there was to know, decades ago. If yes, is Google God, because God also knows everything? No, no, Google is not God. Then who is God? Let’s ask Google…”
What about AI in the military? Ho, ho, ho, that sounds really scary. Robots fighting robots, ok, but what if they fight us? Does AI have ethics? Given that ‘man is wolf for man’, as proven by all our wars, can it get any worse?
Enough to be scared about. Eventually super AI or super robots may become so expensive that there is still a use for us humans. And, because the trials with chimpanzees working in factories of decades ago did not work, why would AI be able to completely replace us? If energy becomes very scarce or expensive, the good old human may be needed again, although we currently have a big carbon footprint too.
All in all, it is always better to embrace the new developments of the future and to try to organize and regulate it rather than ignore or hide it. In the latter case, the bad guys will take it on anyway and try to destroy or dominate the world. I am in favour of AI, and am not really afraid of Big Brother. Anyway, real sophisticated AI is still years away. But simple robotics are here today also in the service industry like chat-bots for example. Google ear-bots are next.