The arrival of walking robots serving foods in a Mohammadpur cafe on the western side of the Jatiya Sangsad caused enough excitement and enthusiasm among the Dhakites, particularly the young generation. Many might have made a plan to visit the wonder food outlet in order to be served by the artificial intelligence-rich robots. Privileged as they will feel, the differential automated service -unprecedented in the country-will give them a story to tell, at least for sometime before such service turns commonplace with its wide introduction.
However, before many could avail of this extraordinary service, a talking robot sets its foot on Bangladesh soil at the Digital World Expo on December 05 next. Sophia by name, the robot has been fashioned after one of the world's most beautiful movie stars, Audrey Hepburn. Her creator David Hanson from Hong Kong will accompany her at the expo. The world's first social robot will be waiting for people to take questions from them and answer on a wide range of subjects between 2:30 to 4.00 pm on December 06, the inaugural day of the Digital World. Reportedly, Sophia is capable of making fun with her audience.
Programmed with artificial intelligence (AI), the robots are literally on the march. Simulating human cognition and facial gesture is no mean task. To say it is an intricate technological development is an understatement. Actually, these AI-programmed humanoids are deliberatively designed to share space and tasks with humans and to act and interact in a manner that supports the latter's own decisions and actions.
That robots will give company to lonely souls in Japan is old news. The latest is the world's first robot politician waiting to compete in the 2020 parliamentary election in New Zealand. Named Sam, the robot claims he has infinite memories and will not forget the crying issues people raise for redress. Moreover, he has the advantage of analysing the most burning issues dispassionately and will not be biased towards any particular lobby group when elected. Few human politicians fielding their candidature can claim attributes like these. Sam is programmed to engage New Zealanders in constructive dialogues in order to better understand their views. He also admits that he has limitations but soon he will overcome those and taking help of the questions he cannot answer now hopefully he will be able to grow into a better respondent and a politician representing all New Zealanders.
Let's hope he fulfils his objectives. But these are early days of robotic marvel. More amazement is in the pipeline. AI is becoming self-governing and there is no knowing where the limit is. So long as robotic intelligence does not challenge that of the human, there is not much to be worried about. But the automation at a certain level can reach a point where the machine disobeys man with the latter losing all control of the former. Unregulated AI can end up wreaking havoc with human civilisation. The problem with AI is that it lacks emotion, empathy and compassion and what Sam boasts a virtue not to be biased may end up causing immense harm to individuals and society.
Technology guru Elon Musk of Tesla fame, is against exploring the furthest point of AI without regulating its range and scope. Machine learning is developing at a terrifying rate, he complains. He fears, "we're all going to die in a robot apocalypse soon'. Notice the word, robot apocalypse. There is indeed cause for concern because of the spectre of a world where the next generation robots will outsmart today's most advanced ones which can autonomously walk, perform certain tasks, talk and do back flips. What about the most sophisticated and capable robots then turning non-complaint to human orders. This can even happen accidentally with malfunction of set programmes of AI within a robot. If many of those start malfunctioning and go berserk, the creator will be killed at the hands of the created.
Such a fear is not misplaced either. Stephen Hawking, the leading scientist of the world today, has also expressed a similar apprehension. Unless the risks posed by unregulated AI are taken into account, 'AI could be the worst event in the history of our civilisation', the physicist warns. The robots will be more like powerful autonomous weapons capable of annihilating humans irrespective of who belongs to which side or be used as 'new ways for the few to suppress the many'.
Surely, the early enthusiasm of interacting with a talking robot like Sophia or deriving pleasure from service rendered by robot butlers may be quite tempting but appearances may be deceptive in the final analysis. Some of the Hollywood movies have created autonomous ninjas with enormous destructive power. It may not be long before AI bots actually follow in the footsteps of those insidious mechanical characters. Social robots can serve people and society at certain levels, no doubt. But it would be unwise to produce such prototypes which are violent and unleash their wrath on the nearest human beings when there is none to turn against. Human civilisation has invited its own destruction time and again. Already the storage of the weapons of mass destruction has bulged beyond control. There is no point adding yet another potential threat of annihilation in the form of machine's superior intelligence.