10-Year AI Partnership Breaks Ground

An important addition to the voices discussing the future and the safety of AI has been formed through a 10-year partnership between MIT and IBM.

Based on an initial investment of $10 million, the invitation went out to scientists, students and professors to submit ideas for future avenues of study in AI.

There has been a well publicized rift between Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Elon Musk of Open AI to Space X to Tesla. Musk has been the voice of caution concerning AI and its possible downsides. Zuckerberg was the voice of less concern and more growth and use of AI—and that’s just a summary of the friction. It is the growth of an almost magical new technology and the bad press that bad robots get in scary sci-fi movies that might be a simplistic way of stating the issue.

This dark vision derives from the limited knowledge of an industry that is already ingrained in our daily lives. The beauty of the partnership of IBM/MIT is that they are two respected American institutions with the history being major problem solvers in science and technology. IBM’s popular Watson computer and its well regarded image adds a greater positive spin.

It’s clear our civilization must define possible rules or boundaries to keep the world safe from a vastly more intelligent system. Turning an errant AI algorithm on the internet could prove very costly in lives and money. In addition, the issue of robots replacing humans in the workforce creates another thorny problem. The new academic/industrial duo intend to address this in a “Shared Prosperity Program.” This branch of study will investigate how researchers can stop AI and automated labor from leaving the human workforce behind, or otherwise have a negative impact on the average person’s economic future.

The growth in autonomous vehicles, medical VR used to train and then used to cure ailments and financial interactions made more secure with blockchains are already in daily use around the planet.

read more at digitaltrends.com

Photo: AboveSummit with Christopher Harting