The future beckons.

I believe that there are two themes that raise some strong concerns: on the one hand, there is the possibility of AI use as a tool for malicious intent and on the other hand, the possibility that the technology could someday reach the point of achieving sentience and set about to rid the world of human existence.

Let's take a look at the first concern. Worker replacement through automation, e.g. help desks, customer services, and a host of other business processes that week to eliminate personnel costs (wages, annual leave, sick leave, & pensions) and to elevate profits. Another concern is that of the weaponization of AI. In this scenario, AI systems can be unleash on targets, including a law abiding citizenry, by the power elite in order to exercise ultimate control. AI systems may not have systems in place that guard against the carrying out of unjust or immoral acts. If one considers, for example, the rapid development in robotics by companies such as Boston Dynamics and the advances made in nural networks and deep learning by Google and IBM, when combined into integrated systems and deployed in a wide scale, one can easily imagine the possibility of an Orwellian nightmare emerging.

The emergence of sentient systems.

Popular culture has a history of expressing concerns over AI run amuck. The earliest example that come to mind include films such as Colossus The Forbin
Project , Battlestar Galatica and The Terminator. Each film depicts a bleak future where humankind battles for its continued existence against one of its own creations. Indeed, one can perhaps easily ponder the question, if AI is able to achieve sentience, will it come to view humans as unnecessary or worse, considering of storied history, deserving of elimination?

Ethical considerations.

If AI becomes capable of simulate human characteristics to a fault, that is, it becomes virtually indistinguishable for that of a real human being, how will society deal with systems that are capable of displaying intellectual capacity and emotions? How will society be able to make the distinction human intelligence and consciousness and something that is synthetic? Or consider cybernetics where human cognitive capacity is enhanced by AI implants within the brain?

The technology appears to now be developing at pace. Will society be able to develop the means to face the the various challenges that are surely to come with its various implementations?