Will AI lead to disaster for humanity?

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John McCarthy first created the idea of artificial intelligence (AI) in 1956. After more than 60 years, AI has advanced dramatically and become one of the most discussed topics in the tech industry today.

However, technological advancements are two sides of the same coin. Looking at the upside, people can benefit from technical development by improving their quality of life. But, on the downside, regulations and policies on the technology industry have yet to complete, raising concerns about moral and legal issues.

Many would agree that AI is a double-edged sword that needs to be approached carefully and appropriately. So what are the concerns people hold for AI and are they justified?

Dr. Zhang Hongjiang, a venture partner of Sourcecode Capital, believes it's going to be a long time before people need to worry about AI taking over control of humans.

“There are a lot of jobs that will be reduced or replaced by AI, but the broader application of AI could produce and create a lot more new jobs,” said Dr. Zhang.

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He thinks the key is to identify the areas that will be replaced by AI in the long run and prepare for that.

Dr. Zhang's point of view was echoed by James Ding, the managing director of GSR Ventures. He agrees that most of the AI technology is under control of human as of now, but there are also measures in place to avoid or at least minimize undesirable results in the future.

“It's not just AI that we should concern, actually, in the last ten to fifteen years, there's research showing that technology has already caused a certain type of issues,” added Ding. “Whether it's AI or not, we need to do something about it.”

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He continued, “But AI itself doesn't cause (problems) so significantly. In my point of view, AI's impact is less than the impact of the Internet because the Internet's network effect is huge.”

Ding concluded that in the long run AI is critically important and will impact every sector, but in the short term, there have been unrealistic expectations on AI.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)