Computer Vision News - March 2017

36 Computer Vision News RE•WORK Summits in S. Francisco Events If and when, one day, a machine becomes smarter than humans, what will be the first thing it will do? Nikhil: It depends on what you mean by smarter - by today’s definition someone is smarter than you if they are able to do something, possibly even relatively narrowly scoped, better than you. By that measure machines are already smarter than we are at several really impressive things ranging from playing chess and Go, to remembering and recalling information. So I think the boring answer is that when machines get smarter than us, they will just continue to do the things that they are “smart at” and possibly get better at it. Gilles: Machines are already smarter than humans in narrow regards (finding complex formulas, detecting stuff in videos and pictures). If however machine becomes generally smarter than humans in all regards, then I think the first thing it will do is try to improve itself. On a note: I highly doubt that the event of machines passing humans in smartness will be of a very sudden nature. It is far more likely that this will happen very slowly at first. Stacey: First it will feel very lonely, then it will go exploring to push the boundaries of whatever information or experience is available to it, then it will formulate its main goals and the strategy for their accomplishment (to the extent possible within the human- defined containment system and presets), and pursue these relentlessly. Erik: Once we reach an age where machine intelligence exceeds that of humans on specific tasks, they will help with solving some of humanity's greatest challenges. For example, we could harness their engineering power for developing efficient systems and sustainable energy products. Furthermore, we could utilize their scientific capabilities in seeking an understanding of the physical world that perhaps could not be achieved through human intelligence alone. However, the one task we may be most interested in is to have them make themselves smarter. This could be very interesting as eventually they could potentially become smarter than humans in all capacities. What we’ll need to consider is that, if such machines were truly more intelligent than us, the first thing they would do is put themselves in charge, and we would need to be prepared to live in that world. “If such machines were truly more intelligent than us, the first thing they would do is put themselves in charge, and we would need to be prepared to live in that world” “They will continue to do the things that they are smart at” “Try to improve itself” “It will feel very lonely…” How do you like the subject of Machine Intelligence? Would you like to learn more? Don’t miss these two RE•WORK summits in S. Francisco on March 23-24. Click here to register!