Extended Intelligence at TEDxZHAW, or: How Not to Fear AI

Thilo Stadelmann, Director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, makes the case for a better understanding of AI and how this mitigates exaggerated fears in his TEDx Talk.

Imagine you are the world’s best chess player and play against a computer while the whole world is watching. And not just any computer, but the world’s most advanced chess AI system. Suddenly, it makes a random move that you cannot comprehend.

How would you react? Would you question yourself or the machine?

This scenario happened in 1997, and the famous chess player Garri Kasparov did the latter. He thought that the move by IBM’s computer “Deep Blue” was part of a masterful plan and a sign of higher intelligence. In reality, it was a bug in the computer’s system. Gripped by fear, Kasparov was thrown off his match plan and ultimately lost the match.

“Kasparov’s defeat became known as humankind’s first major loss against AI. But the human did not lose against the machine’s abilities. He lost against the man’s fears”, says Thilo Stadelmann, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at the ZHAW School of Engineering.

“Today I observe something similar”, he remarks and opens his TEDx talk with this powerful statement. In his talk, he points out reasons why we do not need to fear current AI systems. Watch the whole video here:

TED talk by AI professor Thilo Stadelmann, who explores the roots of our fear of AI. Playbutton für TED talk by AI professor Thilo Stadelmann, who explores the roots of our fear of AI.

AI professor Thilo Stadelmann explores the roots of our fear of AI, tracing it back not to real technological threats, but to misunderstood limitations and science fiction-fueled worldviews.

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