• Question: If you had the power to build an AI smarter than humans what would you use it for?

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    Asked by AJ5025 to Andrew, Dan, Emilia, Helen, Katy, LauraAnne, Stephanie on 14 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Helen Hanstock

      Helen Hanstock answered on 14 Nov 2016:

      I watched a very interestingTED talk on AI the other day… I think AI is both incredible and potentially quite risky for humans. I would be quite cautious about building AI (which I definitely do not have the skills to do!) to first make sure that it was operating within certain constraints which don’t give it TOO much power or possibility to turn against us…

    • Photo: LauraAnne Furlong

      LauraAnne Furlong answered on 14 Nov 2016:

      Artificial Intelligence is a growing area of modern science, and has lots of exciting opportunities. For example, in prosthetic design, you can measure someone’s muscle activation and then train a prosthetic arm to do a particular task. This is obviously very exciting for those that need these type of arms, as it gives them the opportunity to do lots of every day tasks again. This is the type of AI I am most interested in and helping to improve. However – as Helen correctly points out – having the ability to do this is something that needs to be taken very seriously, and we have to be very careful to make sure the system can’t be too clever and powerful, and ensure there is always some sort of failsafe mechanism where we as humans can over-ride it and stop it.

    • Photo: Katy Griggs

      Katy Griggs answered on 15 Nov 2016:

      Artificial Intelligence is a particular exciting area of research, but as Laura Anne and Helen have mentioned it also has it’s disadvantages. Just like many inventions, people can use it in the wrong way, making it particularly dangerous. But if carefully controlled I think AI could make a real difference to the medical world.

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