"The question is not what technology does to humans, but what humans do to each other through it"

Says Dr. Guy Hoffman, robotics and artificial intelligence researcher and co-director of the Media Innovation Lab at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center ● Hoffman explains that "the real threat to artificial intelligence is the formation of the elite of programmers who produce it - a 26-year-old programmer at Google can determine what our lives will look like"

"A lot of people ask if we should be afraid of robots taking over the world when they get artificial intelligence capabilities. My opinion is that there is no need to be afraid." Says Dr. Guy Hoffman, robotics and artificial intelligence researcher and co-director of the Media Innovation Lab at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center.

Hoffman said his words in his lecture "What is the real threat to human society?" As part of a conference in memory of Zvi Mitar. "Just as computers made their way from industry to the bedroom, so did robots and artificial intelligence." said. "The decisions made by the machine were made with the consent and guidance of humans, so in my opinion - the real threat to artificial intelligence is the formation of the elite of programmers who produce artificial intelligence. A 26-year-old programmer at Google can determine what our lives will look like."

"The question is not what technology does to humans, but what humans do to other humans through technology," clarifies Hoffman.

"There is no doubt that we are facing an era of sharing robots with people," added Hoffman. "The field I'm in deals with the relationship between humans and robots. The last year was a turning point where academic research moves to industry. The hit today are robots that will serve as company at home for lonely people. The major Japanese cell phone provider SoftBank has bought a huge stock of robots that appear to express emotions and communicate with humans in a fairly basic way. All stock sold out in minutes."

different from any other machine

"My PhD supervisor raised almost four million dollars in a crowdfunding campaign to build a social robot for the home," Hoffman said. "People paid $500 per unit in advance for it, even though it's still in development. Google bought all the companies that deal with robotics, and also employ the researchers in the academy secretly, probably in the development of a robot for the home. On the other side - children buy kits, and build robots, drones, etc. and program them themselves."

"Regarding the issue of ethics and robotics, a study published in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University where they gave people the option to cheat in a game to get more money. The robot lowered the level of cheating like a person sitting in front of it," said Hoffman. "They just forgot a small thing - we can tell if they cheated or not because we check the computer itself. They thought they could only be seen cheating if a human or even a robot was in the room and they weren't alone. The fact that there was something physical in front of them made them feel that they were being followed."

"The user experience with robots will be much more emotional. The Darwinian buttons that technology presses on robots because of body language, and because of the fact that we are sensitive to body language, makes the robot different from any other machine," he explained.

In conclusion, Hoffman said that "in regards to the robots' body language, we will see a new type of user interface that can touch us in deeper places - touch us on the shoulder, hug us, look us in the eyes, in schools, in nursing homes. It's the most democratic interface, no one needs to learn it. On the other hand, it has a direct channel into the heart, which if we don't consider it we may regret it once we build the machines that will go into the house."

The article was first published on the People and Computers website