Humans can realise their full potential with machines' help, says robot Sophia creator David Hanson

David Hanson, Hanson Robotics Founder and creator of robot Sophia, says there is no real danger from Artificial Intelligence (AI) or history to indicate that machine intelligence will take over human intelligence.

Giving his perspective of the concern that human beings are playing with fire through AI at a session with Sophia at the World Congress on IT and NASSCOM India Leadership Forum in Hyderabad on Tuesday, Mr. Hanson said, “after 60 years of research, we showed up now. Yet we don't see adaptivity, free will in the robots as exhibited by the organisms. Human mind can achieve scientific discoveries but machines don't do that spontaneously. They do and act only based on constructed intelligence.”

“But yes, Sophia is a living machine. Machines don't understand the consequences of their actions. So when people ask about the consequences of AI or raise concerns, we don't know what will be the consequences. But it is the time to ask these questions,” he asserted.

''But then some say it is too late to ask these questions?'' David Hanson, however, felt that one need not fear the technology but to be aware of possible dangers and think of positive outcomes. “The conversation is happening on how can we regulate, shut down a product, and imagine and innovate through formal reasoning to make a truly good machine,” he said. Technology could be used to make safe, compassionate machines and empowering them to grow through transformative technologies.

Human beings have the advantage of evolutionary heritage and they don't have the impulses of apes. But there were different human emotions from greed, deceit to graciousness, ethical thinking, love and nurturing. So how can one craft the machines with the best of human ethics should be the way forward, he elaborated.

The robots have a long way to go to become live and conscious and for that they have to become adaptive to the intelligence around them . “My chief scientist says it can happen in the next five years but I believe it will take 20 to 25 years.”

'Developing robots is like raising children'

Mr. Hanson likened developing robots as raising children. ''Sophia is like an infant now and it will take at least 18 years to raise her properly and help her evolve, go through learning cycles, with better physiology and simulations, help her imbibe human consciousness through intelligent algorithms. But she is a fast learner. The aspiration is to develop Sophia as a co-organism,'' he said.

Mr.Hanson, however, said the way forward for human beings to realise their true potential is only with help from the machines to be in much better place on the Earth. ''So it is not about machines alone but men, machines and future life on the planet,'' he said while signing off.