The potential of artificial intelligence (AI) opens up new avenues of development for states, primarily in the military field. For a start, we’ll see increasing numbers of unmanned vehicles, both aerial and underwater: so-called “floating drones” are already making huge waves, so to speak, in the area of military research. Command of all combat operations will be handed over to a major AI that controls other AIs lower down at the field level.
The domestic version will be a “supreme AI” that controls household devices hooked into the Internet of things, including all smart-home systems, and which also takes care of family members. The Internet of things is set to be replaced by the “Internet of smart things” or the “Internet of AI brains,” whereupon hackers bent on reprogramming AI could become the bane of new technology. Not only will we have to manage everyday tasks, but also learn to defend ourselves, just as people learn to sidestep criminals and fraudsters in real life. Either way, it’s people who will remain in charge of AI-based systems.
In the area of social relations, AI will become an object of research as a substitute for a human in sexual relations and as a communicative partner. The key issues here relate to AI's ability to feel emotions, as well as to lie and act irrationally. Such systems will ultimately become indistinguishable from humans, giving rise not only to multiple philosophical, ethical, and moral problems, but to new legal norms regulating interactions between people and AI, and even among the machines themselves. As foreseen by sci-fi writers, we can even expect to see the appearance of robot-rights activists campaigning for robots’ electoral and civil freedoms, as well as their right of self-determination.
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