U-M computer science professor Igor Markov believes an attack by artificial intelligence on humans would sort of be like when the Black Plague hit Europe in the 14th century, killing up to 50 percent of a populatioin that had no idea what was happening or why.
“This would be illustrative of what you might expect if a superintelligent AI would attack. You would not know precisely what’s going on, there would be huge problems, and you would be almost helpless,” said Markov, who is also a Google software engineer.
Markov joined sci-fi author David Brin and other influential names in the artificial intelligence community at The AI Conference in San Francisco on June 2. Rather than devising technological solutions, Markov looked to lessons from ancient history for survival in such a situation, such as developing “friendly” AI to act as a protector, much in the way humans domesticated wolves to become modern dogs.
