Artificial Superintelligence, AI Machine Consciousness.
Artificial Superintelligence or short, ASI, also known as digital superintelligence, is the advent of a hypothetical agent that possesses intelligence far surpassing that of the smartest and most gifted human minds.
If we as a species manage not to destroy ourselves up until the advent of true artificial general intelligence, the moment of the next phase for our survival in a post AGI world, will be even more paramount. The consensus among AI experts is that the time it takes to go from AGI or artificial general intelligence to ASI or artificial superintelligence, is exceptionally shorter than the time it takes to achieve AGI from current narrow artificial intelligence systems.
So, we really have only one try to make it right. Philosopher Nick Bostrom has expressed concern about the advent of ASI. He thinks artificial superintelligence may pose the biggest existential threat to humanity. Besides Nick Bostrom, other well-known public thinkers that are concerned about ASI include Elon Musk.
One of the biggest concerns of superintelligence theorists is the singularity hypothesis, which posits that superhuman AI will be created within a short time after the first intelligence explosion. A singularity heralds an abrupt transition in intelligence beyond human levels, leading to superintelligence. If such an entity comes into existence, it would then have immediate access to vastly greater computational resources than humans and may use them for either benign purposes or malevolent ones.
One of the solutions to this risk is the implementation of a precautionary principle, possibly in conjunction with regulation to ensure machine ethics are aligned with our own. The other side of the coin of the concept of machine ethics is how we will treat artificial intelligence systems.
Whether we will care about the well-being of machines is tied down to the concept of Artificial consciousness or machine consciousness and whether if we will be convinced that they have a subjective experience.
If the current trend of technological growth continues, one day, we will inevitably pave the way for the advent of artificial super-intelligence.