Dr. Tim BRYS (Artificial Intelligence Lab VU.B) And then there was ... ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) is the collective term for machines (such as computers), networks, and software that can perform tasks that previously required human intelligence, and it has become commonplace in a short time. More than half of the Flemish population uses some form of AI to look things up, solve problems, make predictions, and control other machines as well as people. It is now becoming clear that AGI - GENERALIZED ARTIFICIAL SUPERINTELLIGENCE - is emerging and developing itself further. It can do everything that humans can - and even more. If superintelligent AI can be built and this AGI can further develop itself through the cumulative processing of data, it might well claim all resources on Earth, even at the expense of the needs of the people and the society we know today. The economist J.M. KEYNES predicted in the 1930s that technological progress would translate into easier production processes that could be left to machines. This would lead to much more free time and greater social equality. The development of AI, especially AGI in the hands of growing (mainly American) companies, focused on the concentration of knowledge, money, power, and control, and aimed at profit maximization, could well lead to techno-feudalism, and thus to decline and greater inequality. Dr. Tim BRYS, a researcher at the V.U.B., regularly publishes contributions in newspapers, weekly magazines, and websites in addition to academic papers. And he has written a book about this. He advocates for a thoughtful approach to the new technology. With concern for a good society and from a rich view of humanity, he analyzes the impact of AI(G) on our relationships, freedom, creativity, work, and much more. He advocates for thoughtfulness and moral imagination in a time of rapid change.