A.I. and Geopolitics

(Picture by dailymail.co.uk)

Our team was reading a post the other day by David Gosset on Artificial Intelligence and Global Geoplitics and it spurred many discussions around some of the points he made in his article. 

Some views we agree with, and others we think need some more examination.

The article we are referring to is annotated below in case you'd like to read it.

ArtificialIntelligence (AI) And Global Geopolitics: By David Gosset (@davidgossetase) 

(Director, Academia Sinica Europaea at China Europe International Business School)

Subset from "Atoms for Peace" to "AI for Mankind"

One of the statements that David makes is:

"Anticipating the emergence of an even more powerful and increasingly autonomous AI reinforced by quantum computing, these engaged voices (reference to Stephen Hawking, Nick Bostrom, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk) are asking for a collective reflection upon what could constitute an external challenge to mankind, a technology which could dominate its creator."

Our teams question is this if these people are worried about what will happen when AI is reinforced by quantum computing, what do these people think will happen with AI is married up with Big Data of the Internet for its brain?

What happens when AI is in the wild, and can access any and all information that is currently on the internet? 

As stated in a presentation given at a Digital Government conference not even a month ago we will produce more content on the internet this year alone then all of the content we have produced in the last 500 years.

Let those two questions and that statement sit with you for a few minutes...

David goes on to state:

"The recent win of the AlphaGo computer program over the Korean Go champion Lee Sedol was indeed a strong signal of the rapid development of machine learning at the intersection of computer science and neuroscience."

Our team believes within 5 years or less there won't be a computer science or neuroscience anymore. Those two sciences will be blended together, and it will be hard to tell them apart when it comes to AI. 

We think with a blending of the two sciences for AI a new science will emerge in the area of “Neuro Conceptual Learning”, and we believe this will be the basis for how AI will begin to learn and grow.

David brings up a very interesting point when he states:

” For decades, nuclear weapons stood as the frightening symbols of the Cold War, will AI become the mark of a 21st century Sino-Western strategic antagonism?”

In case the term “Sino-Western strategic antagonism” isn’t a familiar term to you let’s break that down quickly.

Sino – refers to Chinese

Western – refers to America

Antagonism – refers to an active hostility or opposition between unfriendly or conflicting groups.

As each country is pushing to develop and advance its AI technologies will this be a technology of contention? We believe that AI will be bigger than any one country or any one technology. 

We think in order to develop AI to its fullest potential it is going to take the best minds and technologies from around the world and across all cultures.

So why can’t we use each other’s strengths and work on a solution together?

If the true goal is to make AI the best it can be then there should be no reason as to why we can’t work together.

But something tells us that’s not the real goal here.

What are your thoughts... 

Do you think AI will cause a divide between cultures? Countries? And the world as a whole?

Does it have to cause a divide?

Let us know your thoughts and views on this topic.