Will AI save humanity? US tech fest offers reality check

Desdemona, a humanoid robot designed by Hanson Robotics and endowed with expressiveness and interactivity to teach AI to understand and care about people, is displayed at a SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. Its creator fears the turbulence from AI, but pointed out that humans are doing a ‘fine job’ already of playing ‘existential roulette’ with nuclear weapons and by causing ‘the fastest mass extinction event in human history’. — AFP

AUSTIN: Artificial intelligence aficionados are betting that the technology will help solve humanity’s biggest problems, from wars to global warming, but in practice, these may be unrealistic ambitions for now.

“It’s not about asking AI ‘Hey, this is a sticky problem. What would you do?’ and AI is like, ‘well, you need to completely restructure this part of the economy’,” said Michael Littman, a Brown University professor of computer science.