4 – Paperclips

• develop an understanding of automation and it’s effects on society
• develop an understanding of what a technological singularity is

• artificial intelligence (AI)
• intelligence

• robot
• automation

• Moore’s Law
• technological singularity

Use the internet to look at the following AIs portrayed in fiction.

• Skynet from the Terminator movies
• The ship’s navigator in WALL-E
• BB-8 and R2D2 in Star Wars
• GLaDOS from the Portal games
• Baymax from Big Hero 6
• JARVIS from Iron Man

Write down whether the AI is good or bad and what it’s motivations are.

• Have a read of this article on fictional AIs and the reality.
• Have a read of this article. There have been some very intelligent scientists out there who have genuine concerns about AI.
• Watch the video and see how intelligent machines can affect our society.

• So what are they worried about? One scientist theorised AI that could potentially destroy all humanity is The Paperclipper. This is an AI that has been programmed to make paperclips, that’s it.
• Read the passage below to see how this could happen, if you want more information, click here.

“The year is 2055 and The Gem Manufacturing Company has put you in charge of increasing the efficiency of its paperclip manufacturing operations. One of your hobbies is amateur artificial intelligence research and it just so happens that you figured out how to build a super-human AI just days before you got the commission. Eager to test out your new software, you spend the rest of the day formally defining the concept of a paperclip and then give you new software the following goal, or “utility function” in Bostrom’s parlance: create as many paperclips as possible with the resources available.

You eagerly grant it access to Gem Manufacturing’s automated paperclip production factories and everything starts working out great. The AI discovers new, highly-unexpected ways of rearranging and reprograming existing production equipment. By the end of the week waste has quickly declined, profits risen and when the phone rings you’re sure you’re about to get promoted. But it’s not management calling you, it’s your mother. She’s telling you to turn on the television.

You quickly learn that every automated factory in the world has had its security compromised and they are all churning out paperclips. You rush to into the factories’ central server room and unplug all the computers there. It’s no use, your AI has compromised (and in some cases even honestly rented) several large-scale server farms and is now using a not-insignificant percentage of the worlds computing resources. Around a month later, your AI has gone through the equivalent of several technological revolutions, perfecting a form of nanotechnology it is now using to convert all available matter on earth into paperclips. A decade later, all of our solar system has been turned into paperclips or paperclip production facilities and millions of probes are making their way to nearby stars in search of more matter to turn into paperclips.”

• With a partner, play a little game whereby one of you is the programmer that has created The Paperclipper and the other one is the AI.
• The programmer should try to come up with ways that you could limit the AI, either before switching it on or when you realise it’s getting out of hand.
• The AI should try to come up with ways of ensuring that it continues to make paperclips as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• Write down your ideas and upload them along with your fictional AI notes to the Silver badge task on www.bournetolearn.com as a screenshot.

• Moore’s Law came about from the observation of the founder of Intel, Gordon E. Moore, that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since the integrated circuit was invented.
• More often we now refer to Moore’s Law with regard to the processing power of computers.

• As you can see from the graph above, computers are becoming ever more powerful, which begs the question – ‘When will it all stop?’

• Watch the video below on the AlphaGo AI.

Want to watch the whole AlphaGo movie in your own time? Click here to see it.

• AlphaGo was able to convincingly beat the best human champion in the game of Go. But what happens when we build a computer that is actually more intelligent than a human?
• In theory, such a computer would be able to design another computer more intelligent than itself.
• This next computer could also design a computer more intelligent than itself, and that’s not all. Maybe the computers would be capable of solving other problems. Maybe the computer could eradicate disease, devise treatments for ageing, design reactors that give us an infinite source of energy, create processes that provide unlimited food, build spaceships that can travel to other galaxies.
• We call this hypothetical point in time, the Technological Singularity. Some Scientists don’t believe it will ever happen. Some believe it is inevitable.
• The question is – what do these super-human AI computers do with humankind? Will the computers turn us into immortal beings that never need work or suffer again? Will the computers consider us irrelevant? Serve us? Ignore us? Destroy us?

• Have a look at these videos that explain and offer different views of a potential technological singularity.

• Answer the following questions as fully as possible. You may need to use other sources of information, other than the videos already shown.

1. What are some of the positive predictions regarding a technological singularity?
2. What are some of the negative predictions regarding a technological singularity?
3. Are there any people working to try and bring about the technological singularity and in your opinion, is this sensible and why?

• You will be awarded Gold or Platinum according to the quality of your response. You should answer in full sentences and in your own words, if you find information on the internet you should include links to your sources in your answer.
• Upload your notes to www.bournetolearn.com as a screenshot.

• You have done some research , watched some videos and taken some notes for the Silver, Gold and platinum badge tasks above.
• To assess your understanding, you will take a quiz.
• Although your quiz score will award you the badges, but your teacher will also look at your notes to decide if your work has met the badge requirement.
• Please click here to take a quiz.

In this lesson, you…

• Looked at different fictional AI and their characteristics.

• Considered whether a technological singularity will help or hinder the future of humanity.

• Took a quiz to test your knowledge on AI and it’s future.

Next lesson, you will…

• Look at The Trolley Problem and how modern AI will have to take life and death decisions.
• Decide whether you could allow AI to kill humans to defend your home.
• Justify whether or not intelligent AI should have similar rights to humans.