BBC 6分钟英语 Do you fear artificial inteligence

English

from BBC, learning English. Hello. I'm Rob.

Welcome to Six Minute English. And with me in the studio is Neil.

Hello. Rob. Hello. Feeling a clever today?

Now I am feeling quite bright and clever.

Yes, that's good to hear.

Well, you'll need your wits about you, meaning you'll need to

think very quickly in this program, because we're talking about

intelligence, or, to be more accurate, artificial intelligence.

And will learn some vocabulary related to the topic so that you can have your own discussion about it.

Neil. Now, you know who Professor Stephen Hawkkin is.

Right? Well, of course yes. Many people say that he is a genius.

In other words, he is very, very intelligent.

Professor Hawking is one of the most famous scientists in the world.

People remember him for his brilliance, and also because he communicates using a synthetic voice generated by a computer.

Synthetic means it's made from something nonnatural.

Artificial is similar in meaning we use it when something is man made to look or behave like something natural.

Well, professor Hawkin has said recently that efforts to create thinking machines are a threat to our existence.

A threat means something which can put us in danger.

Now, can you imagine that? Neal?

Well, there's no denying that good things can come from the creation of artificial intelligence.

Computers which can think for themselves might be able to find solutions to problems we haven't been able to solve.

But technology is developing quickly. Maybe we should consider the consequences.

Some of these very clever robots are already surpassing us.

Rob To surpass means to have abilities superior to our own.

Yes, maybe you can remember the headlines when a supercomputer defeated the world chess champion Gary Casparov, to everyone's astonishment.

It was in 1997. What was the computer called?

O'neil? Was it A red menace?

B, deep blue, or C Silver?

Sofa Um, I don't know. I think C is probably not right.

I think deep blue, that's B Deep blue.

Okay, well, you'll know if you got the answer right at the end of the program.

Well, our theme is artificial intelligence.

And when we talk about this, we have to mention the movies, many science fiction movies have explored the idea of bad computers who want to harm us.

One example is 2001, A Space Odyssey, yes, a good film.

And another one is The Terminator, a movie in which Arnold Schwarzenegger played an android from the future, an androids, a robot that looks like a human.

Have you watched that one meal?

Yes, I have. And that android is not very friendly.

No, it's not. In many movies and books about robots that think the robots end up rebelling against their creators.

But some experts say the risk posed by artificial intelligence is not the computers attack us because they hate us.

Their problem is related to their efficiency.

What do you mean? Well, let's listen to what philosopher Nick Bostrom has to say.

He's the founder of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University.

He uses three words when describing what's inside the mind of a thinking computer.

This phrase means to meet their objectives.

What's the phrase he uses? The bulk of the risk is in machines being evil or hating humans, but rather that they are indifferent to humans, and that in pursuit of their own goals, we humans would suffer as a side effect.

Suppose you had a superintelligent AI whose only goal was to make as many paper clips as possible.

Human bodies consist of atoms, and those atoms could be used to make a lot of really nice paper clips.

Do you want paper clips? It turns out that in the pursuit of this, you would have instrumental reasons to do things that would be harmful to humanity.

A world in which humans become paper clips.

Wow. Now, that's scary, but the phrase, which means meet their objectives, is to pursue their goals.

Yes, it is. So the academic explains that if you're a computer responsible for producing paper clips, you will pursue your objective at any cost, and even use atoms from human bodies to turn them into paper clips.

Now, that's a horror story, rob If Stephen Hawking is worried, I think I might be too.

How can we be sure that artificial intelligence be either a device or software?

We'll have a moral compass, ah, a good expression, A moral compass, in other words, an understanding of what is right and what is wrong.

Artificial intelligence is an interesting topic, rob I hope we can chat about it again in the future.

But now I'm looking at the clock, and we're running out of time, I'm afraid.

And I'd like to know if I got the answer to the quiz question right?

Well, my question was about a supercomputer which defeated the world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

What was the machine's name? Was it Red Menace, deep Blue, or silver Sofa?

And I think it's Deep Blue.

Well, it sounds

like you're more intelligent than a computer, because you got the answer right.

Yes, it was

Deep Blue. The 1997 match was actually the 2nd one between Casparov and Deep Blue, a supercomputer designed by the company IBM, and it was specialized

in chess playing. Well, I think I might

challenge Deep Blue to a game.

Obviously, I'm a bit of a

genius myself. I'm very good. Good to hear.

Anyway, we've just got time to remember some of the words and expressions that we've used today, neil.

They were, you'll need your wits about you.

Artificial genius, synthetic threat to surpass to pursue their goals.

Moral compass. Thank you. Well, that's it for this program.

Do visit bbc learning english dot com to find more six minute English programs.

Until next time. Good Bye. Good Bye.

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