In an interview, Imperial College London (ICL) professor Murray Shanahan discusses his work with the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence, which will explore the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) and its possible ramifications for mankind.
"I'm compelled to look at what AI might mean from a social and a philosophical point of view," Shanahan notes.
He says a smart AI will likely obey an instruction to fulfill a specific goal, which it can do by studying the problem from various perspectives.
However, Shanahan warns of unexpected side-effects. He says ICL's participation in the center concerns the transparency of decision-making in intelligent machines to enable human intervention and supervision when necessary.
Shanahan also notes the center will examine such innovations as driverless cars and autonomous weapons to articulate their various challenges and both malevolent and benevolent applications.
In terms of long-term challenges, Shanahan raises the question of whether human-level cognition in AI will expand the "space of possible minds" to make AI a peer of humans and animals. "What might be the implications of that for rights or personhood of AI?" he asks.
From Imperial College London
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