Visitors look at robots at the 21st China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing, China. Photo / AP file
Visitors look at robots at the 21st China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing, China. Photo / AP file
Robots will never rise up against humans and instead will become part of the family, according to a leading expert in artificial intelligence.
We are entering an age in which children will grow up with robot friends and the elderly will be looked after by robot carers, said Dr Nigel Shadbolt, professor of computer science at Oxford University.
But fears that the machines will become sentient and threaten humanity are baseless, he insisted, the Daily Telegraph reports.
"Does AI threaten humanity? Certainly anything you see in Hollywood portrays it that way. They are usually mad, bad and dangerous to know. Essentially, you don't want to get too close to them.
"But this is to misunderstand where the real problem lies. It is not artificial intelligence that should terrify you, it is natural stupidity," Shadbolt told the Hay Festival.
"Quite rightly people begin to worry - are the machines going to wake up, are they going to become super-capable? I want to tell you that no, they're not. We're building super-narrow, task-achieving super-intelligence. But we have no understanding as yet of a general characterisation of artificial intelligence or how you transfer from one task to another."
Shadbolt said he understood why people are "freaked out" by Amazon Alexa or Google Home devices that can communicate with us.
But he said it is humans, not computers, who wish to take the relationship further. "We will begin to empathise with them. It will not be long before these devices are the companions that grow up with our children and that look after us in elder care - from cradle to grave.
"We project emotions and intentions onto these systems. It doesn't matter that there's nobody at home in the circuits, just a very good answer chatbot. It doesn't matter. We will become extraordinarily attached to them."
Shadbolt said this has already begun to happen, referring to a ceremony in Japan earlier this month at which Buddhist monks led a memorial to 114 "deceased" Sony robot dogs. "Tears were shed. These were much-loved members of the family," he said.
Also this month, the robotics company Boston Dynamics released footage of a humanoid robot running outside.
Boston Dynamics Chief Executive Marc Raibert speaks about his four-legged robot SpotMini in Tokyo. Photo / AP file
The Hay audience laughed as the robot paused before gingerly jumping over a log. "Look what you're doing. You're imagining there is a little AI in there trying to get over the log. It's a control algorithm," said Shadbolt, who is principal of Jesus College, Oxford and co-author with Roger Hampson of The Digital Ape : How to Live (in Peace) with Smart Machines.
It is common to project feelings on to artificial intelligence, he added, such as the IBM super-computer, Watson, which was pitted against two champions on the US quiz show Jeopardy in 2011.
Shadbolt said: "Watson achieved superhuman levels of performance in this game using essentially a massive data base of facts and training on previous games played. It has the impression of being smart, generally aware. But I can assure you that Watson had no sense of great satisfaction as he beat the world's best."
The smartphone remains one of the greatest technological advances of the modern age, he went on. They are "the super-computers in our pockets" and "we often don't understand just quite how impressed and amazed we ought to be," he said of the technology inside every phone.
"These are the pyramids of the 21st century. These are the medieval cathedrals we should stand and be in awe of."
