Will we control AI, or will it control us? Top researchers weigh in

Imagine this: you're gently awoken by the dulcet tones of your personal assistant just as you're nearing the end of your final sleep cycle.

A disembodied voice informs you of the emails you missed overnight and how they were responded to in your absence. The same voice lets you know rain is expected this morning and recommends you don your trenchcoat before leaving the house. As your car drives you to the office, your wristwatch announces that lunch from your local steak house has been preordered for delivery since your iron levels have been a little low lately.

Having all your needs anticipated and met before you've even had the chance to realize them yourself is one of the potentials of advanced artificial intelligence. Some of Canada's top AI researchers believe it could create a utopia for humankind — if AI doesn't eradicate our species first.

While neither new nor simple, the conversation surrounding AI and how it will impact the way we lead our lives can be broken into three parts: whether superintelligence — an entity that surpasses human intelligence — will be produced, how that entity could both improve upon or destroy life as we know it, and what we can do now to control the outcome. 

But no matter what, observers in the field say the topic should be among the highest priorities for world leaders.

For the average person, AI in today's context can be characterized by posing a question to a device and hearing the answer within seconds. Or the wallet on your mobile phone opening at the sight of your face. 

These are responses that arise following a human prompt for a single task, which is a common characteristic of artificial intelligence, or artificial narrow intelligence (ANI). The next stage is AGI, or artificial general intelligence, which is still in development, but would provide the potential for machines to think and make decisions on their own and therefore be more productive, according to the University of Wolverhampton in England.

ASI, or superintelligence, will operate beyond a human level and is only a matter of years away, according to many in the field, including British-Canadian computer scientist, Geoffrey Hinton, who spoke with CBC from his studio in Toronto where he lives and currently serves as a Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto.

"If you want to know what it's like not to be the apex intelligence, ask a chicken," said Hinton, often lauded as one of the Godfathers of AI.

"Nearly all the leading researchers believe that we will get superintelligence. We will make things smarter than ourselves," said Hinton. "I thought it would be 50 to 100 years. Now I think it's maybe five to 20 years before we get superintelligence. Maybe longer, but it's coming quicker than I thought."

Jeff Clune, a computer science professor at the University of British Columbia and the Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, an AI research not-for-profit based in Toronto, echoes Hinton's predictions regarding superintelligence.

"I definitely think that there's a chance, and a non-trivial chance, that it could show up this year," he said.

"We have entered the era in which superintelligence is possible with each passing month and that probability will grow with each passing month."

Eradicating diseases, streamlining irrigation systems, and perfecting food distribution are just a few of the techniques superintelligence could provide to help humans solve the climate crisis and end world hunger. However, experts caution against underestimating the power of AI, both for better or worse.