"Just as electricity transformed almost everything 100 years ago, today I actually have a hard time thinking of an industry that I don't think AI (Artificial Intelligence) will transform in the next several years." Andrew Ng. "I'm interested in things that change the world or that affect the future and wondrous, new technology where you see it, and you're like, 'Wow, how did that even happen? "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race….It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded." "I don't want to really scare you, but it was alarming how many people I talked to who are highly placed people in AI who have retreats that are sort of'bug out' houses, to which they could flee if it all hits the fan." "With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon.

If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic – being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago.

We discuss why James wrote this book 3 years ago now, how far away he really thinks we are from artificial human intelligence, the warning bells recently being sounded about artificial intelligence, and why he thinks there will not be another AI winter. Our guest today is James Barrat author of the book "Our final Invention" Artificial Intelligence and the end of the Human Era". It's good to be here. Kathleen Walch: [00:00:39] Great, I'd like to get started by having you introduce yourself to our listeners and to tell us a little bit about your book and also what additional things that you're doing in the field of AI and let's go from there. I got into artificial intelligence, or the study of artificial intelligence, and the critique of AI because I made a film about 17 years ago now about artificial intelligence. I interviewed Ray Kurzweil and Rodney Brooks and Arthur C. Clarke among others … and Ray Kurzweil of course who is now chief engineer at Google and the Google brain project.

I don't want to really scare you, but it was alarming how many people I talked to who are highly placed people in AI who have retreats that are sort of'bug out' houses, to which they could flee if it all hits the fan.

Author: James Barrat Published Year: 2013 Recommendation: 3.7/5.0 Published Year: 2017 Recommendation: 4.1/5.0 Author: Peter Norvig, Stuart J. Russell Published Year: 2009 (3rd Edition) Recommendation: 4.2/5.0 Author: Raymond Kurzweil Published Year: 2005 Recommendation: 3.9/5.0 Published Year: 2018 Recommendation: 4.0/5.0

Artificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see, and even who you date. It's in your smart phone, your car, and it has the run of your house. It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls our transportation, energy, and water infrastructure. Artificial Intelligence is for the 21st century what electricity was for the 20th and steam power for the 19th. The Hollywood cliché that artificial intelligence will take over the world could soon become scientific reality as AI matches then surpasses human intelligence.

There's a saying among futurists that a human-equivalent artificial intelligence will be our last invention. After that, AIs will be capable of designing virtually anything on their own -- including themselves. Here's how a recursively self-improving AI could transform itself into a superintelligent machine. When it comes to understanding the potential for artificial intelligence, it's critical to understand that an AI might eventually be able to modify itself, and that these modifications could allow it to increase its intelligence extremely fast. Once sophisticated enough, an AI will be able to engage in what's called "recursive self-improvement."