Artificial Intelligence (AI)Physicist Stephen Hawking, discussing artificial intelligence (AI), suggested that in our move toward technology, he expects automation will further accelerate inequality. If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed—everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality, as Hawking shares.
Hawking has also expressed in a BBC interview in 2014, his opinion regarding AI, believing the development of full AI could mean the end of the human race. Recently, he co-wrote an article in The Independent, saying that creating AI would be the biggest event in human history and maybe the last and that AI could transform our economy to deliver both great wealth and dislocation.
AI researchers historically do not see the threat to the human race, but do appreciate the inequality factor. For example, AI professor Toby Walsh from the National Information and Communications Technology Australia predicted that there would not be a job that AI could not perform as well, if not better than humans.
The accuracy of the inequality prediction seems to be playing out with the highest percentage of global population living in extreme poverty while income disparity/inequality is rising globally.
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