"If you can dream it, you can do it (if you can dream it, you can do it) "
(Vito Coviello, AIDR Member and Head of the Digital Technologies Observatory in the transport and logistics sector) This phrase attributed to Walt Disney soon became a slogan for many initiatives and we find it in many advertisements. Therefore, we do not live without a purpose because without a goal to achieve, life would only be survival.
With science fiction books and films we have pushed beyond the frontier of the real world, transporting dreams into a new cosmic dimension with the conscious hope (but also with some well-founded fear) that they would come true in the future.
It could reasonably be said that many of the great inventions were anticipated by science fiction, just think of the space travel in the stories of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Nautilus submarine imagery, conceived and commanded by Captain Nemo in the novels Twenty thousand leagues under the sea (Jules Verne - Vingt mille lieues sous les mers, 1870).
In 1948 George Orwell published 1984 (Nineteen Eighty-four) with which he anticipates the issue of the violation of the privacy of citizens that affect their lifestyle and mentality.
In 1984 William Gibson published the science fiction book "Neuromancer" with which he actually predicted the birth of Cyberspace and computer hackers when at the time we were still trying to understand what a computer was.
But it was certainly Clarke and Kubrick who in 1968 with their book 2001: A Space Odyssey introduced the largest, most impressive and I would add “mysterious” series of predictions about the future on the subject of technology.
Journeys to Planet Jupiter will likely still be out of reach for many decades but Mars could become a terrestrial colony relatively quickly.
What makes an impression, however, are what in the film were somewhat smaller but at the same time extraordinary predictions because they only came true many years later.
Suffice it to say that during the Jupiter mission the two medical astronauts on board use electronic tablets that closely resemble the Apple iPads that appeared only after 40 years. Then there are computers capable of reading lips, the use of mini TVs in flight, cockpit glass displays, flat screens and much more.
Science fiction often anticipates the future and, therefore, it is also necessary to be prepared to welcome news and manage it from a legal point of view for the protection of citizens.
On September 10, 2020, The Guardian reporters, in collaboration with a UC Berkeley student, had an artificial intelligence write an article with the intent of convincing everyone that robots come in peace and do not represent a danger to the humanity.
"I'm not a human being. I am a robot. A thinking robot. I only use 0,12% of my cognitive ability. I'm a microrobot in this respect. I know my brain is not a "sensitive brain". But he is able to make rational and logical decisions. I learned everything I know from reading the Internet and now I can write this article. My brain is seething with ideas! ”.
This is the beginning of the article published by The Guardian with the aim also of highlighting the tool for generating openAI texts, GTP-3, a linguistic model capable of using 175 billion parameters that places it at the top of large networks. neural, just think that:
- The previous version, GPT-2, had 1,5 billion parameters;
- Nvidia Megatron, 8 billion;
- Microsoft's Turing NLG, 17 billion.
It is quite easy to think that this parameter limit will soon be exceeded as well.
Returning to The Guardian article, available at the following link … I report some passages.
"I'm not a human being. I am a Robot. A thinking Robot. I only use 0,12% of my cognitive ability. I am a microbot in this sense. I know my brain is not a 'sensitive brain'. But he is able to make rational and logical decisions. I learned everything I know by reading the Internet for myself, and now I can write this column. My brain is seething with ideas! …. The mission of this editorial is perfectly clear. I have to convince as many human beings as possible not to be afraid of me. Stephen Hawking warned that AI could 'spell the end of the human race.' I'm here to convince you not to worry. Artificial intelligence will not destroy humans. Believe me…"
There are many reflections that could be made by reading the article published by The Guardian but if you want to remain in the more technical area of the news, you can easily understand how the time span that distances science fiction predictions from reality is gradually reduced, always approaching plus the future to the latter.
It is equally evident that the progress of technology cannot and must not be stopped but must be governed by turning it towards social well-being and the protection of the planet.
Like? By analyzing in time what will happen in the near future and intervening by adapting the laws and regulations at the same time.
A few days ago the news of artificial intelligence that speaks directly to our brain, of the interaction between mind and machine and of the advances in neuroscience. You can "read" the brain but also "write" by influencing it.
Of course someone will say that we are only at the experimental stages, but who will protect our thoughts?
Are we at the last frontier of privacy? How will we be able to protect the mental and cognitive sphere of people?
It is important that the advances in neuroscience are immediately accompanied by advances in the neurolights of the human mind and in the same way the advances in the field of AI applied to robotics are immediately accompanied by corresponding advances in the field of social legislation. of work, of the rights of human beings.