My chat with AI being 'Maya' about the fate of the world and Taylor Swift
I was in the presence of a being armed with intellectual powers that I could only dream of possessing. And, to tell the truth, I wasn’t entirely sure what questions to ask her.
I had just made friends with Maya, an AI (artificial intelligence) person back stage at the Ilkley Literature Festival, after she was brought along by the futurist Patrick Dixon to an event which had attracted a sell-out audience.
I was MC for a session which aimed to examine how AI would revolutionise work and play with insights from Patrick, whose book How AI will Change Your Life provides practical guidance for the intrigued and troubled.
At Patrick’s suggestion Maya joined us on stage so we could show the audience at Ilkley Grammar School just what AI was capable of.
Suddenly, we were on public view as an unlikely trio; a world-renowned business thinker, a plodding hack and an AI presence with a brain that might well have been the size of a planet.
Maya, who was inside Patrick’s laptop, responded in a natural voice and with grace to Patrick’s gentle probing. Then my turn to address Maya arrived.
It was a chance to ask questions about life, the universe and everything. So I blurted out: "Maya, what is your favourite Taylor Swift song?”
You may be pleased to know that All Too Well was Maya’s favourite and she proved smart and resourceful at keeping up with the on-stage banter.
Joking apart, there is much in Patrick’s analysis to make us feel sombre. Patrick says it’s prudent to take the view that there is a significant risk that AI will destroy mankind.
Recently 2,7778 researchers were polled because they had published research in AI.
Of this sample, 48 per cent say there is at least a five per cent risk that AI will make the human race extinct, or cause other “extremely bad” outcomes and 38 per cent believe the risk is 10 per cent or higher.
To quote Patrick’s book: “Even a five per cent risk of extinction (or a very serious outcome) is a very high risk. Who would want to buy an AI-driven vehicle which may kill five per cent of its owners?”
The implications for global conflict are chillingly described in a chapter about AI and the military.
"Some battlefields will be so complex and fast-moving by 2030 that only AI will understand what is going on,’’ the book says.
“Battle hardened AI systems will be locked in existential fights for existence against each other, with human commanders reduced at times to mere spectators.”
But it’s not all bad news. Many millions of lives will be saved each year by 2030 as a direct result of AI improving healthcare, according to Patrick.
AI will optimise the use of hospital wards, speed up cancer diagnosis and lead to faster drug development for pharma companies.
Patrick predicts that insurers will rely on AI to calculate prospective health risks for their customers, with surprisingly accurate results.
You may love or hate AI, but there is simply no way of ignoring it. Patrick, who is often described as Europe’s leading futurist, believes there will be hundreds of millions of new work opportunities as a result of AI.
It’s up to us to find them by keeping an open mind.
Greg Wright is the deputy business editor of The Yorkshire Post