• Question: Do you think robots will rule the world?

    Asked by hilol to Chris, Josh, Rebecca, Rob, Susan on 16 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by thatoneguy.
    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      They could if we’re careless. Let’s try not to let them, shall we?

    • Photo: Josh Meyers

      Josh Meyers answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      They definitely could if we allow them.
      Haven’t we seen enough films of this to avoid it?

    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      Not for a while yet. You may have seen reports of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, which asked people to design robots to carry out tasks designed to relate to disaster relief – drive a car, get out of the car, open a door and go through it, open a valve, cut a hole in a wall with a cutting tool, manipulate some equipment, travel across a rough surface and climb stairs. Of the 23 robots competing, only 3 managed all tasks (the incentive was a $3.5 million prize – this is not just an amateur competition). You can watch the less than impressive efforts on YouTube.

      Basically, a lot of the things that are easy for us are HARD for robots. It’s not hard to design something that will do well in a very limited environment, like a chess match, but it’s much harder to design something that can perform in the real world. Maybe there will come a time when artificial intelligence will outstrip the natural product, but it’s been talked about for a long time, and it’s not happening.

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