Rest easy, robots are not taking over world

Dubai - Keen said the solution is for governments to reinvent themselves.

Can robots rule the world? Can they dethrone the humans from the top of the food chain?
"No," says Neil Jacobstein, co-chair of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics Track at Singularity University on the Nasa Research Park campus in California.
"AI and Robotics are going to transform the world but not rule the world. It's our responsibility to make sure that these technologies are applied intelligently and ethically and that's very different than having robot overlords," Jacobstein told Khaleej Times at the final day of the World Government Summit on Wednesday."We need to develop a more nuanced understanding of what AI and Robotics can do for us. They have the potential to help us solve our great challenges and raise the level of humanity and civilisation rather than destroy it," he added.Jacobstein explained that the fear that robots will take over humans came from philosophical and ethical dilemma."AI and Robotics come with trade-offs. The upside is faster manufacturing and better problem solving but on the downside are job disruption, human identity change and risk amplification," said Jacobstein.
"There is a potential for risk and we need to be proactive about controlling the risk," he added.British-American entrepreneur and author Andrew Keen said this risk should be viewed not on the technological aspect but on the economic and political sphere."There is a small, elite group of people who can create AI and think outside the box but most people can't or won't," said Keen. "So I fear the winner-takes-all nature of this technological economy."This cultural system will create more inequality than equality. The architects of the internet, for instance, have failed on their promise that the digital revolution will deliver democracy."Keen said he is not against technology, but he explained that those who own technology can undermine the society. "The real crisis is the disappearance of the middle class but not all humans will be made unemployed," noted Keen. "Computers will not rule us but there will be a handful of companies and individuals who will accumulate massive wealth and power because of technology."
Keen said the solution is for governments to reinvent themselves. "We need governments who can take on corporate super powers."
"We don't really know what is going to happen in the future. But what we do know is that technologies change and governments need to learn from the past. Governments can set the parameters and they have done this in the past when they broke up cartels, banks and monopolies for the good of the society."