Ronald Bailey Wonders If Skynet Is Inevitable

In the new Spike Jonze movie Her, an
operating system called Samantha evolves into an enchanting
self-directed intelligence with a will of her own. Not to spoil
this visually and intellectually dazzling movie for anyone, but
Samantha makes choices that do not harm humanity, though they do
leave us feeling a bit sadder. In his terrific new book, Our
Final Invention, the documentarian James Barrat argues that
hopes for the development of an essentially benign artificial
general intelligence (AGI) like Samantha amount to a silly pipe
dream. The book has given technological optimist and
Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey a lot to think
about.

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