I have to wonder how many people have seen the article which talks about a problem Facebook had with two different computers that was set up to use artificial intelligence and communicate with each other. As the computers began to communicate things were normal, but then they apparently decided the English language was inefficient so they modified it and started eliminating the words they thought were extraneous and then modified the language again. Researchers became very nervous, because they were getting to the point where they wouldn’t know what the computers were saying to each other, so they took a very bold step and decided enough was enough and shut the computers down. Does any of this sound familiar? Some say it reminds them of the movie Terminator, but I think it was more like the movie Wargames where computers agreed with each other. I have to wonder how many scientists would have believed this could happen.

There is a bigger picture here than just two computers passing secret messages. Many countries are beginning to create weapons controlled by artificial intelligence. Some drones are being equipped with weapons and controlled by artificial intelligence to destroy targets which they deem to be enemy targets. We believed by using machines to kill on their own we would be saving soldiers from injury, but would we really be doing that? It could turn out all we are doing is placing our soldiers in one area and making them even a bigger target along with the civilian population. Remember all those articles about people hacking cars? What is to stop a group of computer hackers breaking the code on the weapons we are using which have artificial intelligence? Could it be any harder to break than the code which protects our nuclear weapons which was broken by a hacker working for the government to see if it could be done who used nothing more than an Apple laptop computer years ago?

For all we know somebody is working right now on a way to turn any missiles we fire which are controlled by artificial intelligence back at us. I can’t help but believe one of the most dangerous things we can do is allow artificial intelligence to make decisions of life and death. We see above how artificial intelligence likes to improve things. The two computers controlled by artificial intelligence decided our language is not very efficient so they improved it. This improvement was only an improvement to the machines it was not something we wanted to do or would have liked to have used as our language. One of the big questions is what if machines controlled by artificial intelligence decide there is no need for us just as they did in Terminator? Some believe the movie Terminator was prophetic and the outcome of machines attacking humans was something which was going to happen to us in the future. Can you imagine how the scientists felt when they saw the two computers controlled by artificial intelligence making modifications to their communications?

Two years ago an open letter was posted on a scientific website which stated it was a very bad idea to use artificial intelligence for weapons, but they did go on to say the use of it to aid mankind could be a good thing. When you think about it would humans ever stand by as two robot armies fought it out on the battlefield? Knowing human nature I can’t help but think somehow we would intervene on our own side to battle the enemy. As time went by since the invention of the modern computer and I observed artificial intelligence or AI getting more powerful I began to see the dark side of artificial intelligence. The dark side was artificial intelligence could be used in such a way it would be even more dangerous than a nuclear weapon. I say this because it could get into everything we use and even if it wasn’t tampered with present a problem to us in the future, of course some devices are not much of a threat even with artificial intelligence in them, I mean what is a Rogue artificial intelligence in your refrigerator going to accomplish? Letting your groceries spoil may be annoying, but it is certainly not life-threatening?

When HAL the computer in the movie “A Space Odyssey 2001” turned against the astronauts this might have been the first inkling of the dangers of artificial intelligence. This type of thing had appeared in other movies, but none of those movies had the exposure of the one I am talking about. Think about this, there is a move on in the military to develop an exoskeleton. A soldier would climb into it and it would increase his capabilities for physical activity and then if there is a fight it is said he could step out of it and it would become a robot which would help him defeat the enemy. What if the exoskeleton decided it wasn’t coming off, or would come off and left to protect itself instead of fighting? Could an AI controlled device think at some point that it’s life was more important than a human life? I don’t think this is so far-fetched do you?

As we build more intelligent computers and model them after the human brain, which we are doing now by the way, and equip them with superfast processing units or even quantum units, we may be developing a new type of life. This would be life without a soul, life that didn’t have a conscience. If we think things are bad now can you imagine machines which would think no more about eliminating you than you would think about swatting a fly? It might come to a point where the world might outlaw machines with artificial intelligence. So far there has been nothing created by man which is computerized that cannot be compromised. We should always keep this in the back of our mind, because we not only could face a threat from the machine itself, but also from tampering.

Lastly there may come a time when artificial intelligence takes over and does what it thinks is best for the human race. I am certain this would not be a very pretty sight. Machines will be telling us when to eat, when to sleep and when to perform the activities of our daily living.