ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Has humanity begun to lose control of intelligent machines? This question generates a great deal of debate among scientists who have attempted to create and develop technological devices for approximately three decades. While some futurists argue that the fast developing artificial intelligence will  be  uncontrollable by the end of this century and this robot revolution may contribute to the end of the human race, others put emphasis on the fact that these intelligent robots will always need humans to program and develop them. In my opinion, since  technology is being developed each passing day, in the future, it will be possible for machines which become smarter than their developers to end the human race.

          Owing to technological development, the loss of “human” jobs may emerge in business life. Intelligent machines, unlike humans, do not get exhausted. Once they are produced and then as long as fuel or electricity is supplied, they can work every second of every day, without sleep or coffee breaks. In addition, if they become capable of self development, it will be impossible to stop them. Even today, scientists work on the intelligent robots which have access to the Internet. These robots can reach data which is necessary to accomplish their tasks and upgrade themselves by developing their skills and learning new ones but human beings do not have those abilities. Even though human intelligence is improving each new generation, humans will not be as talented as intelligent machines. This fact is concrete evidence of how the machines with artificial intelligence can replace people in business life.

         Today, people are concerned about economic fluctuations, the decline of fossil fuels, and global warming but not artificial intelligence, which may become harmful in the future. Robots with artificial intelligence which do not have any emotions or conscience may be used as indestructible soldiers who are serial killers or successful agents. Thus, this bad programming could bring the end of the human race. This seems like a scenario we are accustomed to seeing in science-fiction movies but if we consider that the old science fiction gave the idea of today’s technological devices, it does not seem absurd that in the future, we may live with robot-human mixtures which are not just smarter and stronger but also more evil and cruel than a normal person.

         Opponents who claim that a machine is only as smart as the person who programmed it do not see any danger in the use of artificial intelligence. According to their point of view, if a problem occurs, scientists who control the intelligence will be able to destroy those robots. In my opinion, in no way will intelligent machines be compared with humans in terms of level of intelligence in the future. Although human beings became smart enough to create robots, if robots were programmed in a bad way, they would not be able to control them. This seems like a disaster scenario today, but considering the increasing technological growth rate, we might observe not only the upsides but also the downsides. Human beings should not terminate the technology but they should highlight the importance of being prepared for the possible implications.

         In a nut shell, whether or not artificial intelligence could be the end of the human race is a controversial and important question. However, when people cast light on this issue, the whole picture of technological development will be visible with both negative and positive aspects. In my opinion, people who are worried about artificial intelligence are absolutely right and the only way to prevent possible disaster is to keep the development of artificial intelligence under control before worst-case scenarios become inevitable.