From
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141202201551-100950400-blockchain-ai-on-the-bitcoin-protocol-will-not-pose-an-existential-threat-to-humanityBlockchain AI on the Bitcoin Protocol Will Not Pose an Existential Threat to HumanityAs our technological capability as a civilization has begun to reach the point where we have the tools to build the components that could lead to the emergence of a singularity, or at the least thinking machines, we have seen more concerns from a variety of fronts about potential existential threats to humanity. The “Skynet” scenario from the Terminator movies, the “PINN” scenario from the Transcendence movie, and the “V.I.K.I.” scenario from the I, Robot movie all seem to drive our imaginations for the negative possibilities. Recent comments from Elon Musk that he is afraid of the development of advanced artificial intelligence and that it may “unleash demons” is hysterical at best.
There are even organizations such as the Lifeboat Foundation doing research and building defenses and actual bunkers to protect against these potential existential threats.
The blockchain, however, has the answer. The blockchain and the Bitcoin protocol provide a mechanism by which we can throttle, control, and direct the operation of an artificial intelligence. It can be used to put up guardrails and speed bumps to regulate the evolution of the AI.
It is conceivable that in the future an artificial intelligence programmed on the blockchain could learn to reprogram itself. But, such an AI would need to enforce a network protocol hard fork in order to change the rules of the game. This is unlikely.
Another scenario that one might think about is an AI “jumping blockchains” from one coin network to another. This would pre-suppose the existence of multiple coin networks supporting the same operational technology to “run” the artificial intelligence. Recent pursuits to interconnect coin networks in so-called “internet of blockchains” will facilitate interface interoperability on a service bus, but it is unlikely this will lead to the ability for an AI to jump blockchains any time soon.
An appropriate selection of specification parameters guiding the coin network operation will ensure that there are fees and costs involved. In the future, perhaps it is possible that an AI could “learn” how to conduct activities to earn profit, but in order to go “rogue” it would need to do so with sufficient earnings to finance its activities.
These are certainly fantastical scenarios to think about that tickle our imaginations. But the reality is that we are quite a ways off from any of these scenarios becoming possible. Blockchains, the Bitcoin protocol and coin networks give us levers we can use to “manage” the evolution of an artificial intelligence existing on the blockchain. In fact, it would seem ideally suited to do so. So between now and then, we have plenty of control points we can leverage, and plenty of time to think about the types of gates and guardrails we will want to encode into the protocol to ensure a blockchain AI remains a “friendly AI.”
As we plan out the Sapience AIFX project to realize a blockchain artificial intelligence system, making sure it is controlled and “friendly” is a priority, however fantastical the above scenarios may seem today. You can get involved and help support our project by contributing to the crowdfund (
http://crowdfund.blockchainsingularity.com) and helping us spread the word on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. All help is greatly appreciated, as we drive towards making this AI a reality. You can also check out our thread on BitcoinTalk at
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=864895.0.
