“the network is effectively a giant computer that may prove very useful as such – Lambert reckons it could be powerful enough to run an artificial intelligence tat draws on all the knowledge in the network, and in fact MaidSafe has been talking with an EU-funded project called RoboEarth about this very goal.”
An artificial intelligence that draws on all the knowledge in the network… that sounds quite similar to the situation we have with the current internet! Or am I missing something?
AI or IA’s could be run on the network in the future, though that’s quite different from the network “falling into the hands” of robots. Such scenario’s are currently pure science fiction, intelligence comparable to that of a human being is non-existent in contemporary AI systems. Yes we can bundle a lot of computing power and let it do some neat smart stuff, but it’s still all extremely focused on specific tasks. We aren’t even close to Artificial General Intelligence, the kind of AI that could be considered sort of “living”, which could “rebel” instead of “malfunction”. Don’t worry about it.
I don’t really think the network could be controlled by actual robots - that was really just an attention-grabbing title. But if “all the knowledge in the network” could potentially be fed to robots, then that intelligence could presumably fall into the hands of a person or group of people, such as some of the corporate people who are involved in the design of these robots. I just hope that the decentralization of the SAFE network is not compromised in any way.
Having said this, I do agree that this is a very exciting time to be alive.
What a great time to be alive…