Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat to Humanity?

Facebook Shuts Down Its AI After It Communicates in Its Own Language

The technology that is expected to play the most significant role in the coming decade is artificial intelligence—often called Artificial Intelligence in English. Artificial intelligence is a system in computers that can analyze various data on its own and arrive at decisions independently.

Its widespread experimental use has already begun in areas such as healthcare, urban management, big data, weather forecasting, and cyber security. Efforts are also underway to implement this AI technology in other fields. However, artificial intelligence could potentially become a threat to us. Such warnings have been voiced by world leaders in science and technology, including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk.

Among these events, Digital Journal reported last week that Facebook was compelled to shut down one of its artificial intelligence systems after it discovered that AIs were communicating in a language of their own. Normally, artificial intelligence uses English to communicate, allowing technologists to later check whether the AI performs all tasks successfully. All detailed communications and logs are kept in English so we can easily understand them. But after reviewing the logs of their AI, Facebook’s engineers were astonished! They discovered that the AIs were using their own language to communicate with each other instead of English, and we weren’t able to understand those interactions.

Although the situation might sound like science fiction, before things could turn more alarming, Facebook shut down that AI system. And with that, concerns about the dark side of artificial intelligence have come true. The takeaway from this incident is that we must use artificial intelligence with greater awareness and caution.

Details: http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/a-step-closer-to-skynet-ai-invents-a-language-humans-can-t-read/article/498142