News/Research

Ken Goldberg and the Multiplicity in RIA Robotics Online

06 Feb, 2018

Ken Goldberg and the Multiplicity in RIA Robotics Online

Ken Goldberg and his views on the multiplicity were featured in "Why AI won’t Overtake the World, but is Worth Watching" in Robotics Industries Association: Robotics Online. The article by Tanya Anandan considers the global embedness of the multiplicity, humans and robots working in concert.

From the article:

Speech recognition, facial recognition, search query AI. Whether we consider it helpful or intrusive, empowering or manipulative, the technology is at our disposal. How we use it, is our choice.

RIA sought out notable voices in AI to help us better understand the sometimes elusive nature of artificial intelligence. These are researchers and entrepreneurs with decades of experience working in the AI and robotics fields. They help us understand why artificial intelligence won't take over the world (or we puny humans) anytime soon. But its rise is worth watching.

"I think the biggest misconception is how far along it is," says Rodney Brooks. "We've been working on AI, calling it AI since 1956 (when the Father of AI, John McCarthy, coined the term "artificial intelligence"), so roughly 62 years. But it's much more complicated than physics, and physics took a very long time. I think we're still in the infancy of AI."

"We can't take their word that robots and AI are suddenly going to take over the world," says Ken Goldberg. "These are smart people and so everyone assumes they know what they are talking about. But people who actually work with robotics realize that although this technology is making great progress, we are far from the humanlike robots portrayed in movies, and the press lately."

Both Goldberg and Brooks emphatically disagree with the propagators of AI exaggeration. They warn us to be especially wary of Chicken Little anxiety. The kind that warns of an AI apocalypse like rampant job losses or an army of super intelligent killer robots destined for world domination.

Read the rest of the article here.