Artificial Intelligence is not able to 'press the delete key' on humanity just yet | Colin Conwell

Computers are immensely capable, but certain things we humans do almost effortlessly an artificial intelligence has immense difficulty achieving

Artificial intelligence seems to be the neighborhood menace these days: in the presence of responsible adults, it smiles, is polite and offers to do the dishes. With a less responsible crowd - of the Pentagon or Volkswagen variety - it firebombs your flowerbed and sabotages your environmental fundraiser. And just when you think the menace could not be any more existential, you realize it's inextricably implicated in the fabric of your life, so much so that you'll likely never be rid of it.

The menace of artificial intelligence is very real in most respects. As a lock pick for the infiltration of the private sphere, a method of control in the public sphere or a weapon, artificial intelligence poses a substantial threat. But there is at least one aspect of that threat that our dystopian generation, including the most elite of our technocratic vanguard, may tend to exaggerate: namely, the ability for artificial intelligence to become "self-aware" to the extent that it could, as Elon Musk suggests it might "press the delete key" on humanity.