[ExI] The Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence

[BillK]

The Real Threat of Artificial Intelligence
By KAI-FU LEE  JUNE 24, 2017

<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/opinion/sunday/artificial-intelligence-economic-inequality.html>

Quotes:

BEIJING — What worries you about the coming world of artificial intelligence?

Too often the answer to this question resembles the plot of a sci-fi
thriller. People worry that developments in A.I. will bring about the
“singularity” — that point in history when A.I. surpasses human
intelligence, leading to an unimaginable revolution in human affairs.
Or they wonder whether instead of our controlling artificial
intelligence, it will control us, turning us, in effect, into cyborgs.

On the contrary, the A.I. products that now exist are improving faster
than most people realize and promise to radically transform our world,
not always for the better. They are only tools, not a competing form
of intelligence. But they will reshape what work means and how wealth
is created, leading to unprecedented economic inequalities and even
altering the global balance of power.

Unlike the Industrial Revolution and the computer revolution, the A.I.
revolution is not taking certain jobs (artisans, personal assistants
who use paper and typewriters) and replacing them with other jobs
(assembly-line workers, personal assistants conversant with
computers). Instead, it is poised to bring about a wide-scale
decimation of jobs — mostly lower-paying jobs, but some higher-paying
ones, too.

This transformation will result in enormous profits for the companies
that develop A.I., as well as for the companies that adopt it.

We are thus facing two developments that do not sit easily together:
enormous wealth concentrated in relatively few hands and enormous
numbers of people out of work. What is to be done?
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BillK