Different thoughts about A.I.

Text A: Mark Zuckerberg & Elon Musk

1. What is Mark Zuckerberg’s opinion about A.I.?
2. What is Elon Musk’s opinion about A.I.?
3. What do they both agree on?
Answers: Mark Zuckerberg has a very positive opinion about AI / is more optimistic than Musk. It can help to
identify and cure diseases. It can also make cars drive more safely and keep our communities safe. There will be a
few ethical issues as with any new technology.

Elon Musk is sceptical about AI / has warned about the dangers of general AI (“far more dangerous than nukes” l.
11).

Both agree on: AI would be beneficial in self-driving cars, and people shouldn’t be too negative about them: there
can be mistakes made but it’s bound to happen and it shouldn’t slow down progress. Functional/ narrow AI is not a
sophisticated AI, it’s not very smart, it is able to perform a few actions in a specific field (e.g. AI in a car). General AI is
a very intelligent AI, the kind that might be self-aware.

Text B: Fei-Fei Li
4. What are Fei-Fei Li’s recommendations?
5. According to her, what is our responsibility?
Answers: Fei-Fei Li recommends that AI must be guided by human concerns / it has to be a human-centred AI
and it needs to reflect the depth of our intelligence (to understand our feelings and thoughts): to do so,
programmers need to collaborate with experts in other fields (psychology, sociology etc.). She also says that it needs
to enhance us, not replace us (even though inevitably some of our jobs will be threatened) and that we have to
make sure this technology is guided by concerns for its effects on humans and that these machines don’t have to be
our competitors but our partners / these machines should secure our well-being.

According to her, these machines have our values: there are no “machine values”, only “human values” because we
are their creators, they are our own responsibility, no matter how autonomous they become, for better or for worse.

Text C: Stephen Hawking

6. What is Stephen Hawking’s opinion about A.I.?
7. Who are the people that share Hawking’s opinion about A.I.?
(quote the text)
8. About the open letter (l.10-29): when was it written, who signed
it, what was its goal and what was the advice given on it?
 9. Focus on lines 30-44. What were the recommendations given by
the European Parliament? What were the recommendations given
in the report presented to the Parliament?
Answers: Stephen Hawking compares it with an alien invasion and thinks there should be more research
devoted to AI. Elon Musk thinks AI can provide incalculable benefits but it can also have disastrous effects on the
human race if deployed incautiously.

People who share Hawking’s opinion: Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak.

Open letter: Signed in January 2015 by Hawking, Musk and many AI experts, drafted by the Future of Life Institute.
Goal: To call for concrete research on how potential problems related to AI could be avoided + To reap the potential
benefits of AI + To get AI developers and researchers to pay more attention to AI safety. Advice: Researchers must
work to create A.I. that can be controlled.

Recommendations:

By the European Parliament: A set of regulations should be drafted to govern the creation of robots and AI (e.g.: a
form of electronic personhood ) + We need to make sure that robots are and will remain in the service of humans.
Given in the report presented to the Parliament: Should robots be given legal rights as electronic persons? + All
robotic design should include a kill switch.