Although it's possible for artificial intelligence to replace 80% of human jobs in the near future, it could actually be beneficial, and the risks of AI is not at all world-ending like some suggest, according to Ben Goertzel, a leading researcher and expert on AI.
Mathematician, cognitive scientist and famed robot-creator Goertzel, 56, is founder and chief executive of SingularityNET, a research group he launched to create "Artificial General Intelligence," or AGI – artificial intelligence with human cognitive abilities.
With his long hair and leopard-print cowboy hat, Goertzel was in provocateur mode last week at Web Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the world's biggest annual technology conference, where he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in an interview that AGI is just years away and spoke out against recent efforts to curb artificial intelligence research.
"If we want machines to really be as smart as people and to be as agile in dealing with the unknown, then they need to be able to take big leaps beyond their training and programing. And we're not there yet. But I think there's reason to believe we're years rather than decades from getting there," Goertzel said.
On the risks surrounding AI and calls to ban research, Goertzel had clear thoughts. "I don't think we should pause it because it's like a dangerous superhuman AI ... These are very interesting AI systems, but they're not capable of becoming like human-level general intelligence, because they can't do complex multi-stage reasoning, like you need to do science. They can't invent wild new things outside the scope of their training data."
Goertzel also touched upon the potential for misinformation, and those who advocate to curb AI research due to this. "They can also spread misinformation, and people are saying we should pause them because of this. That's very weird to me. Why haven't we banned the internet? The internet does exactly this."
The robot-creator had gloomy news for most jobs. "You could probably obsolete maybe 80% of jobs that people do, without having an AGI, by my guess. Not with ChatGPT exactly as a product. But with systems of that nature, which are going to follow in the next few years."
However, it's not a doom but an opportunity according to Goertzel. "I don't think it's a threat. I think it's a benefit. People can find better things to do with their life than work for a living... Pretty much every job involving paperwork should be automatable.
"The problem I see is in the interim period, when AIs are obsoleting one human job after another ... I don't know how (to) solve all the social issues."
Goertzel also explained the positive potentials of AI and where they could be implemented.
"You can do a lot of good with AI. Like Grace, (a robot nurse) we showcased at Web Summit Rio. In the U.S., a lot of elderly people are sitting lonely in old folks' homes. And they're not bad in terms of physical condition – you have medical care and food and big-screen TV – but they're bad in terms of emotional and social support. So if you inject humanoid robots into it, that will answer your questions, listen to your stories, help you place a call with your kids or order something online, then you're improving people's lives. Once you get to an AGI, they'll be even better companions," he said.
"In that case, you're not eliminating human jobs. Because basically, there's not enough people who want to do nursing and nursing assistant jobs. I think education will also be an amazing market for humanoid robots, as well as domestic help."
