外文赏析41-50.docxVIP

41.外刊赏读|《经济学人》The dawn of artificial intelligence本文选自《经济学人》中一篇名为 The dawn of artificial intelligence 的文章。文章介绍了人工智能技术未来可能会给人类带来危险，但是没必要担忧过度。作者认为要用理性的态度看待人工智能，清楚人工智能能做到什么，不能做到什么，人工智能已经带来哪些危害，未来发展成熟后又存在哪些风险，人类如何做到未雨绸缪，从而既从人工智能中获益，又能避免灾难发生。本文的话题人工智能属于自然科学，但讨论的是社会科学的问题，切合当下科技发展和社会之间的关系的热点，值得一读。原文I①Surveillance and dislocations are not, though, what worries Messrs Hawking, Musk and Gates, or what inspires a phalanx of futuristic AI films that Hollywood has recently unleashed onto cinema screens. ②Their concern is altogether more distant and more apocalyptic: the threat of autonomous machines with superhuman cognitive capacity and interests that conflict with those of Homo sapiens.II①Such artificially intelligent beings are still a very long way off; indeed, it may never be possible to create them. ②Despite a century of poking and prodding at the brain, psychologists, neurologists, sociologists and philosophers are still a long way from an understanding of how a mind might be made—or what one is.③And the business case for even limited intelligence of the general sort—the sort that has interests and autonomy—is far from clear. ④A car that drives itself better than its owner sounds like a boon; a car with its own ideas about where to go, less so.III①But even if the prospect of what Mr Hawking calls “full” AI is still distant, it is prudent for societies to plan for how to cope. ②That is easier than it seems, not least because humans have been creating autonomous entities with superhuman capacities and unaligned interests for some time. ③Government bureaucracies, markets and armies: all can do things which unaided, unorganized humans cannot. ④All need autonomy to function, all can take on life of their own and all can do great harm if not set up in a just manner and governed by laws and regulations.IV①These parallels should comfort the fearful; they also suggest concrete ways for societies to develop AI safely. ②Just as armies need civilian oversight, markets are regulated an