Could The Turing Test Be The Beginning of The End of Humanity ?

Source

If there's anything that I have learnt in my stay in this our reality, it would be that there are consequences to every action, both bad and good consequences, depending on the reference frame.
Today, we seem to have entered the regime of AI (Artificial intelligence), they now seem to be competing with us in some specialized areas requiring human intelligence. Some of us find it fascinating and helpful while others find it disturbing, as they see it as a threat. Before we proceed further, we would like to point out some remarks, including historical and as I always tell us, knowledge of history is good, as it could help you understand where you're and how to plan better for the future.

Artificial intelligence conventionally speaking are basically advanced computer softwares capable of displaying intelligence but this wasn't the original purpose of the invention of computers, computers were intended to help speed up computational operations/activities, at least this was the case until in the 1940's when a certain dude named Alan Turing (today referred to as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence) raised the question of whether computers could display intelligence. If machines (computers) eventually goes rogue in future, this guy (Alan Turing) should be the first to be held responsible. 😂
Subsequently, he developed what is today known as the Turing test, this test was the first to draw parallels between man's intelligence and that of machines. The CAPTCHA test you take why trying login to a website is an example of a Turing test (modern) but in the reverse form - intended to make machines fail or rather only allow humans to pass it due to their supposed superior intelligence.

Trying to make machines think like man seemed to be the original and actual goal of artificial intelligence, especially due to misinterpretations of Turing's original tests but things have changed now, although it's still the final goal (mimicking man's intelligence), particularly when you talk about “artificial general intelligence". For one part, artificial intelligence is good, it makes certain tasks less laborious which in turn saves us time. It also helps us understand who we are from a materialistic perspective, especially when we discuss about the nature of intelligence and consciousness, although we are still far from answering such questions but there seems to be progress.

For the second part, it is relatively bad and one of this very bad thing about it and as a lot of critics have pointed out is when they become superintelligent and decide to take matters into their hands, it could spell the end of humanity. Personally, I would like to think of the emergence of artificial intelligence as part of evolution except that in this case we are dealing with the evolution of "intelligent agents", we are going beyond biological evolution. Some of us underestimate how intelligent these machines could get, let me give you a slight possibility of how very intelligent they can become based on current trend and drawing parallels with biological systems. These machines are being fed and trained with large amounts of information that we have already experienced and developed, and I believe it would still continue but now, let's assume that they crossed a certain threshold where they no longer require our inputs or help, eventually, they would gain their own experience of the world or rather are likely to develop their own unique perception of how the world works which we may not understand. To better understand what I am talking about let's look at biological entities, ants for example seem to display marvellous engineering skills - anthill as case study, but how they experience the world and possibly understand it to design such structures isn't necessarily how we humans experience and understand the world to design our own engineering structures and most of the time we tend to think our methods/designs are superior. We do not understand how they exactly pull off such feats, we can only understand based on our own perception and intuition, likewise they too, do not and cannot understand how we do our own stuff - like they even care.
So, when machines (AI) develop their own experience, including their own kind of language, combined with what we have given them, then you must now see how mentally powerful they could become if they manage to become sentient. Recently, there have been reports that AI bots now perform better than humans in solving CAPTCHA tests, the same test that was intended for them to fail.

Note that our supposed superior intelligence is responsible for us dominating the planet and causing extinction to other living creatures existing today. This however brings me to something that came to my mind not too recently and it's about the Turing test. The Turing test started this modern idea of artificial intelligence which in future could give rise to superintelligent machines, my question then is, could the same Turing test be used by these superintelligent machines to completely wipe out the entirety of humanity ?

When these machines eventually take over the world and see us as threats that must be eliminated, there likely would be few of us remaining and hiding, trying to develop solutions to increase our chances of surviving or a counterattack which may also require accessing certain computer systems. Surprisingly while trying to access such system we come across tests like CAPTCHA that even the relatively simplest kind could take us eternity to pass because we aren't familiar with their own experience of the world or it could even go as bad as signalling these superintelligent machines of possible human existence - if we fail the test according to an established probability.

In essence, we may have invented the formula for our complete annihilation. Hold on, did I scare you there ?

Actually you should be but......... it's just a speculation and a reminder. Nobody knows for sure if we would eventually develop a machine with artificial general intelligence, let alone a superintelligent kind. There are a lot we still don't know and need to figure out also, machines going rogue in future could actually depend on us, especially how we view them (stereotypes) and how we treat them (dehumanisation). For the problem I raised previously, it's actually possible (theoretically) to escape it and it would be to start working now on how to upload our consciousness into a chip/machine, thus becoming one with the machine - this actually falls under what is called “transhumanism".

Perhaps, the best time to prepare ourselves is now or maybe we should just accept the fact that we would eventually become obsolete beings like our predecessors. Whichever way, evolution must continue and this is where we round up. Have a thoughtful day and see you when next we meet again.

For further reading

Turing test

To Navigate the Age of AI, the World Needs a New Turing Test

AI Bots May Have Defeated CAPTCHA Tests for Good

AI Bots Can Beat Captcha Tests Better than Humans Now

Transhumanism

Artificial intelligence

Thank you all once again for stopping by to read my jargons and also thank you @stemng, @lemouth and the @Steemstem team for your valuable supports.

Source

Lastly, please don't forget to do the needful
Upvote
Comment
Reblog
If you enjoyed my jargons.

Background image source by @doze