Google researcher Meredith Whittaker on the dangers of AI and brain-reading technology

Google Open Research lead
Meredith Whittaker
Photo by Doug Cody,
courtesy of O’Reilly Media

• Meredith Whittaker, a well-known AI researcher and
  ethicist, spoke at the Artificial Intelligence 2018 conference
  in San Francisco. 
• Whittaker painted a gloomy picture of a future where
  tech companies possess the ability to read and store human
  thoughts, and authorities have the ability to subpoena
  them.
• She said that now is the time to ensure the safe use of
  AI and other technologies.  
• One way she suggested that we do that is not to allow
  all this power to rest in the hands of a few privileged
  people.

Listening to Meredith Whittaker
speak about artificial intelligence and the future can chill the
blood, as she suggests dystopian scenarios where not even our
thoughts are safe.

As cofounder of the respected
research instittue AI Now at
New York University, and a leading Google
researcher
,
Whittaker
studies
the
social implications of
AI.  At the Artificial
Intelligence 2018 Conference in San Francisco on Thursday,
Whittaker warned thousands of attendees that the time to protect
ourselves from the misuse of AI and other new and formidable
technologies is now.

“A bit of a disclaimer,” said
Whittaker at the outset of her conference session. “This talk is
going to be dark.”

AI is one of the tech sector’s
hottest fields. All the big companies, including Google,
Facebook, IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Intel, are spending
big on AI research and development. Those investments are
beginning to pay off as AI applications are already having a big
impact on industries including, but not limited to, travel,
healthcare and law enforcement. According to Whittaker, this is
just the start. …

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