AI2 CEO Oren Etzioni envisions an artificial intelligence 'utopia' - GeekWire

Imagine a future where life's most boring or dangerous tasks are handled by machines. Time otherwise spent commuting, scheduling appointments, sifting through mail, could be devoted to human passions instead. That's the best-case scenario for noted computer scientist Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, also known as "AI2," founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. "An AI utopia is a place where people have income guaranteed because their machines are working for them," he explains on a new episode of GeekWire's radio show. "Instead, they focus on activities that they want to do, that are personally meaningful like art or where human creativity still shines, in science. They're engaged in those activities because of the interaction. Another one would be, of course, interaction between people and not because they need to make a buck."