Proto Hologram, a company that designs hologram devices, has enlisted the space veteran to chat with ProtoBot, and maybe even make history.
William Shatner isn’t just an actor who starred in one of the universe’s most iconic sci-fi series. He is also a multifaceted media personality, curious enough to get a ticket to space or participate in a very surprising encounter.
Do AIs dream of digital sheep?
Conversational artificial intelligences are much less talked about than at the start of the year. However, they continue to arouse curiosity and are gradually being incorporated into an increasing number of services and products. This is the case with Proto’s hologram devices, which will soon be accompanied by ProtoBot, an AI program developed by CodeBaby. It was with the latter that William Shatner had a little discussion that it would still be a little difficult to have with Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant, far from the level of current AIs.
In addition to asking very basic questions to test the capabilities of the AI, the Canadian actor also put it to the test on ethical and philosophical topics. ” I ask ProtoBot questions that a computer normally cannot answer “, he told Reuters. ” A computer answers two plus two, but does ProtoBot know what love is? Can ProtoBot Understand Sensitivity? Can he understand emotion? Can he understand fear? »
Questions that are easy to answer with regard to current technology. However, this exchange has the merit of giving rise to an interesting scene. Shatner raises questions that many science fiction thinkers and writers have been asking for decades, if not longer. It is therefore not difficult to see him again here in the skin of a Captain Kirk in the middle of one of his fascinating missions.
The crossroads for humanity and artificial intelligence
This Starfleet officer was not fooled. Behind the fascination aroused in him by ProtoBot’s answers, he detected dangers. Indeed, the knowledge of the program is drawn from the Internet, as are its ethical and philosophical principles. Shatner thus wonders if it is possible to hijack such an AI, for example by manipulating data on the Web. To this, Raffi Kryszek, Head of Innovation at Proto, replies that ” it could be susceptible to damage that we cannot even predict “. When asked if it would be possible to establish rules that the AI could not exceed, the specialist answers: “ Yes, we come back to Isaac Asimov and his laws on robotics, except that he never imagined a global network » such as the Internet.
So, could ProtoBot in turn manipulate humanity or harm it? That’s unlikely, at least as long as it sticks to the Proto M and Proto Epic, devices that retail for $6,500 and $65,000 respectively, and have a fairly limited customer base. If the American company aims to launch a cheaper product for the general public within 18 months, the AI that will inhabit it is of the same ilk as ChatGPT or Google Bard. The risks would be more of the order of disinformation than of the end of the world.
However, for William Shatner, this conversation and the thoughts it raised are not without interest. ” We are everywhere at the crossroads “, he explained. ” We will either perish or exceed all expectations. We are at a very interesting time in history. That’s very well understood, Captain.
Source : Reuters
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