Summary
As AI continues to advance, the topic of the singularity becomes ever more prominent.
What Is the AI Singularity?
This is because the AI singularity refers to the point at which AI intelligence surpasses human intelligence.
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In short, AI technology will be out of our control.
Until the singularity occurs, there’s no knowing what exact form such intelligent systems will take.
A key part of what the AI singularity will bring is an uncontrollable and exponential uptick in technological growth.
So, there are two factors at play here: super-intelligent technology, and the uncontrolled growth of it.
When Is the Singularity Expected?
A LaMDA engineer was even placed on administrative leave for claiming that LaMDA could be sentient.
LaMDA is yet to be officially described as sentient, and the same goes for any other AI system.
No one can see the future, so there are many differing predictions regarding the singularity.
In fact, some believe that the singularity will never be reached.
Let’s get into these varying viewpoints.
A popular singularity prediction is that of Ray Kurzweil, the Director of Engineering at Google.
Another similar prediction was posed by Ben Goertzel, CEO ofSingularityNET.
Goertzel predicted in a2023 Decrypt interviewthat he expects the singularity to be achieved in less than a decade.
But others aren’t so sure.
Others believe the sheer complexity of human intelligence will be a major barrier here.
Why Are People Worried About the Singularity?
So, it’s natural for the idea of a computer super-intelligence to make us a little uncomfortable.
But what are the main concerns here?
The biggest perceived risk of the singularity is humanity’s loss of control of super-intelligent technology.
At the moment, AI systems are controlled by their developers.
ChatGPT can make decisions, but only based on its defined parameters and training data, nothing further.
But what if ChatGPT became so intelligent that it could think for itself?
The continued adoption of AI systems also poses a threat to our planet.
Powering a highly intelligent computer, such as a generative AI machine, would require large amounts of resources.
If super advanced AI becomes a key part of human civilization, our environment may suffer considerably.
So, don’t worry about the threats of the singularity just yet.
After all, it may never arrive!
