Bill Gates’ predictions about the future of humanity in the age of artificial intelligence
1 year ago
[ad_1]
Bill Gates comes out. On his blog he publishes a long document in which he puts his ideas, his expectations, his fears on the future of humanity in the era of artificial intelligence. The AI era has begun, this is the title of the document. Arrived a day after Google launched Bard. Main and currently the most feared answer to ChatGpt, now owned by Microsoft and integrated into the Bing search engine.
A document full of enthusiasm. But where Gates doesn’t hide his fears. And the fears can be traced back to a common denominator: man and the possibility that he makes improper use of these technologies. But not only. Gates also fears the possible evolution of AI into a “superintelligence”. A strong AI, able to set “its own goals” by itself. Perhaps the greatest, most catastrophic risk for all of humanity.
IT’s AI album
A weapon of mass approval?
by Guido Scorza*
Lights and shadows on the future in Gates’ text
Lights and shadows. Gates thinks that basically AI will improve the world and human life. At work, in education, in healthcare. It has destructive potential, but if well managed everything should go well. Should. Gates calls AI “A white collar willing to help you in your various tasks.” AI “could be used in the workforce as a digital personal assistant” to improve employee productivity. Also, when integrated into digital workforce tools like Microsoft Office, it could help manage and compose emails.
Pushing the potential beyond the immediate, Gates argues that these “personal agents”, “helpers”, once they assume adequate knowledge about the company and the sector of competence, could become de facto resources with which employees can work. A future of collaboration, the one imagined by Gates. But fears that this collaboration could become a replacement remain poorly sweetened.
Religion and artificial intelligence
If Pope Francis talks about neural networks with Jews and Muslims
by Jaime D’Alessandro
What is AI, according to Gates
Gates starts from a definition. That of artificial intelligence. He writes: “Technically, the term AI refers to a model created to solve a specific problem or provide a particular service. What powers things like ChatGPT is AI. It’s learning how to improve chat, but it can’t learn others tasks. In contrast, the term artificial general intelligence refers to software that can learn any task or subject. Artificial general intelligence does not exist yet: there is a heated debate in the computer industry about how to create it and whether it is possible create it”.
And again: “The development of artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence has been the great dream of the computer industry. For decades, people wondered when computers would be better than humans at anything other than performing calculations. Now, with the arrival of machine learning and vast amounts of computing power, sophisticated AIs are a reality and will improve very quickly.”
On newsstands with the Republic of the Italian Tech album “Talk to me. The revolution of artificial intelligence”
Healthcare
“As the cost of computing power increases, ChatGpt’s ability to express ideas will increasingly resemble that of having a white-collar worker on hand to help you with various tasks,” Gates wrote. In the healthcare sector, Gates wrote that AI could free healthcare workers from tasks including filling out insurance claims, completing paperwork and writing doctor’s appointment notes. Not to mention how much an AI could help the management of crisis situations in the health sector in the poorest countries, anticipating developments of epidemics and the identification of adequate treatments.
Agriculture and livestock
Not just medicine. It could be all of humanity to benefit from it. Starting with poor countries. Example: agriculture and livestock. Gates wrote that AI could help design seeds suited to local climates. To develop vaccines for livestock. Developments that could be important “given that extreme weather conditions and climate change put even more pressure on subsistence farmers in low-income countries”.
Teachers will not disappear, but they will have to adapt
Gates thinks AI could transform education over the next five to ten years, “by providing content tailored to a student’s learning style and learning what motivates individual students and what causes them to lose interest in subjects.”
AI could also “assist teachers by helping them plan course instruction and assess students’ understanding of classroom topics.”
“Even once the technology is perfected, learning will still depend on great student-teacher relationships,” the letter reads. “Technology will enhance, but never replace, the work students and teachers do together in the classroom.”
Teachers will also need to adapt to students using new technologies in the classroom, such as GPT. Gates cited an example of teachers allowing students to use the GPT to write a first draft of an essay which they then need to customize in subsequent drafts.
“To make the most of this extraordinary technology, we will have to both protect ourselves from the risks and spread the benefits to as many people as possible” is the reasoning of the Microsoft founder.
