Artificial Intelligence, Astronauts, Robotics, Medicine & Neuroscience, Forecasting, Policy and Ethics and Exponentials. All day #2 topics at Singularity University. Today I realized I (and most credit unions, and our regulators) are moving at 25 mph in a world that is doing 100 mph. The world is changing at an accelerating rate and those of us who are looking in our rearview mirrors, and out the side windows are missing the turn ahead visible only through the windshield.
This morning started with exploring the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (aka AI) in our world. Guess what? It has arrived, not as HAL from 2001, but in several other forms, with some even passing the Turing Test. Some are simple forms as an aggregator, curator and others are making thier debut in cars – the google car that can drive with limited assistance of a human using plan, sense, act Artificial Intelligence. Neil Jacobstein led the discussion which ended with vigorous debate around whether machines will become self-aware? And if so, when? When will we as humans go from being supported by AI to threatened? To date, AI has not developed “social grace” – the reason the google car can’t merge into traffic it does not give or understand social cues…
Credit union consideration…when will Artificial Intelligence be required as an augmenter for CU boards? When will AI be required for CU boards?
Dan Barry a retired astronaut lectured on the future of robotics. His perspective is that for AI to evolve it will need to move and understand the environment in which it moves around in. He used the framework of cooperation, adaptation, function and he walked through various types of robotics from autonomous (specific or general purpose) and not autonomous…Will robots have rights? Yes, when they emote and become self aware – a dog, cat and octobpus know they exist – but what about a frog – a mesquito – what about a robot?
Credit union consideration…When will robots move from the factory floor, the mailroom into the credit union lobby?
Daniel Kraft discussed the rapid changes occurring in medicine and in neuroscience. The advances he shared are too many to list. He did surprise the group with Eythor Bendor CEO of Berkeley Bionics who inspired us by having Ted Killroy, a 24 year-old parapalegic, get out of his wheel chair walk with elegs Dr. Kraft wrapped with each of us getting our own DNA mapped with 23andme where we all spit in a vial. Now in theory I know the disease traits in my DNA and medications that may or may not work. WOW!
Credit union considerations….People will be living longer. Life stages will be different. Access to money for elective medical procedurals will increase…can anyone say “life style lending” might just be around the corner.
The evening began with John McGinnis outlining how difficult it is and will be for the US Government, policy-makers and regulators to keep up with the exponential growth of technology. This has far-reaching consequences and implications. For example, when a government does not understand technology or can’t keep up – it tends to shut down the technology. It can have an adverse effect on the country it is attempting to protect and put it at a disadvantage as the technology will move to other jurisdictions. You can only imagine how cerebral this discussion became.
Credit union considerations…Regulators, policy-makers and insurers need to understand how fast the market and technology is evolving and keep up – otherwise, a non-financial institution may very well disrupt today’s financial system.
No, we did not finish here…we went into a forecasting discussion that the future is a cone of uncertainty and then on to a lecture by David Rose Everything you know is wrong! More on this later….
From NASA Ames Research Center “over and out!”
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It’s all happening, Mark.
Baton down the hatches: http://itsjustbrent.posterous.com/the-four-horseman-of-the-robopocalypse
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