Scientists create a swordfighting robot, ethicist warn of the danger of artificial intelligence

IF YOU thought a world with the Terminator was just the stuff of movies - think again. It appears the age of artificial intelligence is upon us. And it has some of the world’s brightest minds running scared.

IF YOU thought a world with the Terminator was just the stuff of movies think again.

It appears the age of artificial intelligence is upon us. And it has some of the world’s brightest minds running scared.

Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and Elon Musk have all recently warned of the dangers of full artificial intelligence with Hawking going as far as saying it could spell the end of the human race.

Now it has emerged some bright folk in Japan have created a robot that can beat a human in a sword fight by predicting its opponent’s next move.

The brains at Namiki Labroratory claim the robot uses an algorithm to detect the moment the ‘human’ will strike then it calculates its attack.

Cue Terminator music.

It is these types of advances that has associate professor Rob Sparrow, an ethicist from Monash University, concerned.

While he says we are far from a “robo-apocalypse”, the US government is in the midst of developing semi-autonomous weapons.

“This is not the sort of robots that will wake up one day and decide to kill us all,” he told news.com.au ahead of his appearance on SBS’s Insight program on Tuesday.

“There is an enormous amount of energy being devoted to military robotics at the moment. I don’t think it’s a good idea to allow autonomous weapons, to allow computers, to choose who lives or dies. I think there is a very real danger of that.

“This is about submarines with no people on board and complicated computer programs that tells it when to launch its torpedos.

“I do think people need to be aware that it’s not just going to be the US and Israeli governments. It will be the Chinese and the Indian governments.

“We have a very dangerous arms race on the horizon.”

However science and technology editor at The Conversation, Tim Dean doesn’t view the development of AI as all doom and gloom.

“I would be cautiously in favour of AI,” he told news.com.au “If we get things right and we are able to develop AI in a way that we can use it to our advantage and we can control it, and we can exploit it. Then it could be a real game change for our cilivisation.

“However there is the cautious bit which is if we do end up letting the genie out of the bottle, if we end up creating a super intelligent AI that has its own interests that is not aligned with ours. We could be creating our own doom.

“It’s like if we had a button and if you press that button you have a 90 per cent chance of bring about a global utopia but a 10 per cent chance of wiping out the planet. The Question is would you press that button?

Associate professor Rob Sparrow talking on Insight. Picture: SBS.

“So part of the cautious approach to developing AI is figuring out those percentages.”

In Tuesday’s Insight program Dr Sparrow and Mr Dean will joined by a panel of experts and scientists from opposing sides of the debate where they will explore the ethical, moral and economic impacts of AI.

Insight host Jenny Brockie with robots. Picture: SBS.

Insight will air on Tuesday at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.