Computers will overtake us when they learn to love, says futurist Ray Kurzweil
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/08/technology/ray-kurzweil-artificial-intelligence/index.html
Ray Kurzweil, the celebrated American inventor who keeps predicting the future with scary accuracy, says computers will match -- and possibly beat -- human intelligence by 2029.
Here's the trick: By then, computers will possess emotions and personality.
"When I talk about computers reaching human levels of intelligence, I'm not talking about logical intelligence," Kurzweil said at an event in New York on Monday night. "It is being funny, and expressing a loving sentiment... That is the cutting edge of human intelligence."
The futurist spoke about AI and the future of technology with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
When Tyson pushed back and asked if computers will one day write a Nobel-prize winning novel, "and supplant even that aspect of what it is to be human," Kurzweil said he puts it differently.
"We're going to combine with that intelligence," Kurzweil responded.
How? Cell-sized nanobots in our brains will connect us to the global Internet and let us download skills, Matrix-style. We'll also edit genes like computer code to cure diseases, Kurzweil predicts.
CNNMoney asked Kurzweil: What happens to inequality in this future? Will brain superpowers and health be limited to the rich?
"Yeah, like cell phones," Kurzweil responded. "Only the rich have access to these technologies -- at a point in time when they don't work."
Industry perfects products for mass consumption, Kurzweil noted. And the tech will inevitably get cheaper. As computer makers keep doubling the number of chips on a circuit board, the "price performance of information technology" doubles every year, he said.
"Nanobots will be available to everyone," Kurzweil said. "These technologies are ultimately democratized because they keep getting less and less expensive."
