Project Vision 21

Francisco Miraval

The border between human and artificial intelligence is becoming too blurry to distinguish which one is the real intelligence, according to recent media reports. Paradoxically, the danger is that sooner than we think the distinction will be so clear there will be no doubts about which intelligence will be in control of the planet.

I must say I am not under the influence of any less than reputable substance. I was not watching late night TV shows and I was not visiting questionable Internet pages. I did what I always do: I read articles and stories in several newspapers and magazines.

For example, according to a BBC News’ story, artificial skin is now so advanced that, in certain aspects, it is almost undistinguishable from natural skin. So, if biological creations inside a science lab are now very close to their natural, could it be possible that something similar is happening with artificial intelligence.

The answer is certainly “Yes”. According to a recent report published by Discovery.com, a female robot, Sophia, is realistically human both in her facial expressions and in her ability to talk with human beings.

Sophia is an intelligent robot designed to interact with humans in the areas of health care, therapies, education, and customer services. According to Discovery.com, there is a little problem with Sophia: she would happily destroy humans.

If Sophia or her friends decide not to kill us all, then Atlas will surely replace us. Atlas is a bipedal robot created by Boston Dynamics and, according to a story by Los Angeles Times, Atlas can do all kind of human tasks, from opening doors and remove snow to pile boxes. The story says that Atlas has “the potential” to end with all human manual labor jobs.

A recent economic report by the White House says that Atlas and his Friends will “soon” replace all workers earning less than $20 an hour. What do they mean by “soon”? According to Grand View Research, it means by 2020. Others, quoted in the most recent issue of Harvard Business Review), it will happen sooner than that.

Regardless, it we agree that by 2020 some humans will be replaced by artificial intelligence, then by 2045 or sooner all humans will be replaced, as Ray Kurzweil, now with Google, has been saying for others. In other words, we are about to see the metamorphosis from Homo Sapiens to Robot Sapiens.

What’s the meaning of all this for us? It means many things. It means, for example, that the emerging future is almost here and that the future is no longer a continuity of the past. It also means we are at risk of being totally excluded and marginalized from that future.

What should be do? Perhaps, but I don’t know if this is a good idea, we can remain sitting in front of the TV or the computer, watching soap operas or soccer games, or posting messages on our social networks. Or perhaps we should begin taking the future seriously.