Artificial Intelligence: Military Advisors Say AI Won't Bring About Robot Apocalypse

The apocalyptic future shown in sci-fi films—the ones where robots have gain consciousness and destroy humanity—is not one you need to worry about according to a report from the United States Department of Defense.

The document, produced by JASON—an independent advisory group comprised of scientists and experts that brief the government on matters of science and technology—outlines trends in the field of artificial intelligence as it pertains to the U.S. military.

According to the report, most computer scientists believe the possible threats posed by AI to be “at best uninformed” and those fears “do not align with the most rapidly advancing current research directions of AI as a field.”

It instead says these existential fears stem from a very particular—and small—part of the field of research called Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which is defined as an AI that can successfully perform any intellectual task that a human can.

The report argues we are unlikely to see the reality of an AGI come from the current artificial intelligence research and the concept “has high visibility, disproportionate to its size or present level of success.”

Despite the report’s dismissal of the possibility of world-destroying machines, it does note the breakthroughs in AI have come at a staggering rate over the last several years and has produced several autonomous military machines.

The report makes note of unmanned aircraft used by the Navy and the South Korea’s Samsung SGR-A1 military robot, which sits at the border of the country and asks humans for a password—and fires on them if they provide the wrong information.

Despite the assurances of the advisory board’s report, there are still plenty of fears surrounding the possibility of overpowering AI—including among some of the most notable names in technology.

Elon Musk, the founder of electric car company Tesla Motors and aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, has warned that he believes it is “ only a matter of time ” until AI is advanced enough to become a threat to humanity.

Musk launched a nonprofit AI research company called OpenAI in 2015 and pledged $1 billion to it, with the intention of developing best practices and helping prevent potentially damaging applications of the technology.