While the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) comes with a truckload of benefits, it also comes with massive risks if the technology falls into the wrong hands. However, decentralization using blockchain technology could help prevent disaster, according to Janet Adams, the chief operator of the artificial intelligence and Web3-focused project SingularityNET.
At the Future Blockchain Summit event in Dubai, Cointelegraph sat down with Adams to learn about the risks of centralization when it comes to AGI and how decentralization holds the key to mitigating these risks.
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While AGI is still a conceptual version of AI that allows a machine to learn and think like a human, its development will create massive change in the world. However, the machine would need to have consciousness and become self-aware to be able to perform a wider range of tasks.
According to Adams, the “dystopian future” that many imagine when it comes to AGI could potentially happen if the technology is monopolized by Big Tech companies, the military or the government. The executive believes that Big Tech will use the technology “for the benefit of the few” and will not allow a significant change in today’s inequalities.
In addition, Adams stressed that if AI is developed exclusively by the military, the risks could be “existential for humanity”, implying that people could use the technology for war. On the other hand, if the technology becomes developed by a single government, the executive believes that this could lead to them having unprecedented power.
To prevent these risks, the COO of SingularityNET believes that it is important to decentralize the development of artificial general intelligence using blockchain technology. Adams explained that:
“Blockchain is the fabric of decentralization. It can be used to enable AI-to-AI financial transactions on the chain, and it can be used to ensure that we have broad access to the broadest developer base around the world for open source AI development.”
Adams noted that decentralization would allow AGIs to be used for the benefit of all and not just be monopolized by a few organizations.
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Despite these views, Adams also recognizes that it is impossible to fully predict how AGI will behave once it is invented because it will be smarter than humans. However, the executive hopes that AGIs would view humanity as their ancestors. She explained:
“Our view is that decentralized governance and making sure that all of our technologies, at any time that we develop, have a positive impact on the planet, a positive impact on humanity, and that we build examples of love and kindness and compassion into our AGI- things.”
Adams also added that their hope is that when AGIs are born, they would “view us as their ancestors.”
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