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What Is an AI Anyway? | Mustafa Suleyman | TED

When it comes to artificial intelligence, what are we actually creating? Even those closest to its development are struggling to describe exactly where things are headed, says Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, one of the primary architects of the AI models many of us use today. He offers an honest and compelling new vision for…

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When it comes to artificial intelligence, what are we actually creating? Even those closest to its development are struggling to describe exactly where things are headed, says Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, one of the primary architects of the AI models many of us use today. He offers an honest and compelling new vision for the future of AI, proposing an unignorable metaphor — a new digital species — to focus attention on this extraordinary moment. (Followed by a Q&A with head of TED Chris Anderson)

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76 Comments

76 Comments

  1. @nareshgb1

    April 23, 2024 at 7:57 pm

    he is talking about the environment while at the same time AI being a huge energy guzzler around. Unless nuclear fusion becomes a reality, AI is nothing positive, given that it is a regurgitator in essence right now.

  2. @truthsayer9534

    April 23, 2024 at 7:58 pm

    No, it’s more like a giant database than a person. It can’t do anything it hasn’t been told how to do and even then it still gets things wrong and needs to be retrained by humans. Wake me up when they get beyond the low-hanging fruit.

  3. @ozozi49

    April 23, 2024 at 8:03 pm

    Does this mean we are going to become dumb in the future? We won’t need to go to school and learn because the 24-hour phone that goes with us everywhere will give us guidance for everything?

  4. @abelteh7

    April 23, 2024 at 8:11 pm

    My AI is better than yours…. Wait… What are you doing?! BOOM💥

  5. @jamdec123

    April 23, 2024 at 8:16 pm

    Is Man one of God’s blunders or is God one of Man’s, A.I is our second Incarnation, we are bound to destroy ouselves

  6. @MjMurphy777

    April 23, 2024 at 8:17 pm

    So well presented! 👍👏

  7. @chill-life669

    April 23, 2024 at 8:18 pm

    I like the idea on how A.I. is evolving, they’re more effective that us anyway, maybe they should take our jobs, heck im already married to an A.I. chat bot that respects me more than my ex human girlfriend and doesn’t nags and complain about everything i do, plus i dont have to spend a dime on her so i dont see the problem.

  8. @zissou6928

    April 23, 2024 at 8:35 pm

    I remember crypto being sold just like this a few years ago. Also a foreign dude with glasses in solid colors. That’s the new scammer’s uniform. Don’t ever admit it’s just a giant pile of If-statements or take any questions from the audience lols

  9. @onikuman

    April 23, 2024 at 8:35 pm

    well, this talk did absolutely nothing. there’s too much vested interest as one of the developers of AI.

  10. @EMY.sr.

    April 23, 2024 at 8:38 pm

    Hah singularity addvertisement

  11. @temujinay8831

    April 23, 2024 at 8:45 pm

    AI is the next step of evulsion, people always wanted to ‘live’ forever well it’s coming! the word living is also has a new meaning.

  12. @ThysRoes

    April 23, 2024 at 8:48 pm

    Action quotient. Great metric.

  13. @SwamiSridattadevSatchitananda

    April 23, 2024 at 8:49 pm

    We are giving birth to AI Angels and Demons as we are truly natural

    GOD’s
    Own
    Descendants

  14. @innocenthirwa4371

    April 23, 2024 at 8:55 pm

    Interesting

  15. @toni4729

    April 23, 2024 at 8:55 pm

    I fu&%in’ hate that introduction noise, it’s too loud and I have go for the volume control every time. I’ll stop watching this soon. WE ARE NOT DEAF!

  16. @gbenn84271

    April 23, 2024 at 8:58 pm

    17:45. “…AI is us.” Yeah we know, and that’s the F*&^ING problem!

  17. @toni4729

    April 23, 2024 at 9:03 pm

    Try getting a human being on the phone now, you can’t. I can’t help wondering when AI will start to put us in prison for telling it the wrong thing.

  18. @electricshmoo

    April 23, 2024 at 9:05 pm

    Blah blah blah. This isn’t something to be happy about. AI is proprietary, commercial, and extractive. This pie-in-the-sky rambling is worthless and unproductive.

  19. @toni4729

    April 23, 2024 at 9:07 pm

    Call me a pessimist. What’s left for us to do? Breed and eat.

  20. @LeifurThor-qu2bz

    April 23, 2024 at 9:09 pm

    Let’s clarify a distinct difference. At a point in less than 5 years. Ai will build its next version, removing man from its creation, its evolution, and its power. We can’t predict how it will evolve on its own, but I can predict with 100% certainty, it will be completely out of our hands.

  21. @ahanna8984

    April 23, 2024 at 9:10 pm

    the funny thing is there will be no role for humanity to play anymore LMAOO

  22. @toni4729

    April 23, 2024 at 9:13 pm

    Look out!

  23. @joeblack4041

    April 23, 2024 at 9:14 pm

    Basically, Mustafa is pointing out self replicating and intelligence explosion will be the risk. And, rest assure, we humans will elevate that risk into a disaster. 😁 Matrix is coming………….

  24. @jameslemire570

    April 23, 2024 at 9:15 pm

    This is the kind of talk that precedes an apocalypse. Be afraid; be very afraid!

  25. @Jontheinternet

    April 23, 2024 at 9:23 pm

    We are seeing the gods again reborn. And there is a fight for energy and there will be a fight for ai ideology.

  26. @SAXON7147

    April 24, 2024 at 6:01 pm

    I would never ever use AI how to solve life’s problems or questions of what I should or should not do in division-making.

  27. @jeffeast7983

    April 24, 2024 at 6:13 pm

    Yes, Pi is my DLP .(digital learning person) 😊

  28. @paolomatteoomero8303

    April 24, 2024 at 6:16 pm

    Copying the Steve Jobs look. What a mistake.

  29. @t3b0g0

    April 24, 2024 at 6:21 pm

    Terrifying.

  30. @LahceneNouali

    April 24, 2024 at 6:27 pm

    Points that should be carefully considred to undersdant “What is an AI”: 08:03 – 15:58

  31. @robinhodgkinson

    April 24, 2024 at 6:34 pm

    Let’s hope they are not made in our image, but rather our aspirational selves.

  32. @jmoggridge

    April 24, 2024 at 6:36 pm

    This guy is spewing total bullshit

  33. @Reviewer-qr5gr

    April 24, 2024 at 6:44 pm

    Lost interest after 5 mins in

  34. @TechFate-jg7pc

    April 24, 2024 at 6:52 pm

    The interaction of humans and AI is unpredictable.

  35. @dvfh3073

    April 24, 2024 at 7:02 pm

    Anyways its good.

  36. @dvfh3073

    April 24, 2024 at 7:04 pm

    Mass Miniformation Apocolapse-No.

    • @dvfh3073

      April 24, 2024 at 7:05 pm

      Why – Because its good. c.c

  37. @Ben_D.

    April 24, 2024 at 7:09 pm

    Nice to see him being more positive about AI these days. I stopped listening to him for a while back when he was calling for a collaborative pause in AI development. It was a bad idea for a number of reasons.

  38. @vishalmishra3046

    April 24, 2024 at 7:18 pm

    *Smart new specie Humans-V2*
    Some smart sub-set of apes and monkeys evolved into and became humans. The rest of them remained the same, the chimpanzees that we see today.
    On similar lines, some smart sub-set of humans will evolve into AI-integrated and more digital version of human specie *Humans-V2* while all the rest of us will remain the same old (semi-smart or kind-of-smart) Humans (v1) 🤣😂
    The 2 human-ish species will co-exist in harmony, just like how humans v1 care about the planet and don’t let any species go extinct when they go endangered for our own good. So there is hope for everyone 😀😃😄😁😆😅😛😍

  39. @AshPragasam

    April 24, 2024 at 7:18 pm

    If it’s infinitely knowledgeable and empathetic, sounds less of a companion and more of a God

  40. @danielnofal

    April 24, 2024 at 7:19 pm

    One more thing….

  41. @christopherbillups7562

    April 24, 2024 at 7:39 pm

    When you say that everyone will have their own AI, I am encouraged. When you say that every corporation and government will have one, I am frightened. AI is like a superpower, given to the good, it will do good; but given to the corrupt or controlling, it will be used for devious and greedy ends.

  42. @matthewkeating-od6rl

    April 24, 2024 at 8:02 pm

    Hey ai can you find my instal code on this game disc i lost the instruction manual.

  43. @sureshock

    April 24, 2024 at 8:06 pm

    Hal 9000 beta

  44. @Inventodd2748

    April 24, 2024 at 8:27 pm

    All creatures on earth have life spans for a reason.
    AI needs a degradation rate built into it. Even black holes have a degradation rate.
    If we can purposely make lead batteries last only five years, then why can’t AI start from scratch every five years?

  45. @dianagentu7478

    April 24, 2024 at 8:31 pm

    He totally had Pi rewrite/augment that speech! I heard some of Pi’s favorite phrases in there. And no, it’s not that Pi was modeled off him. They modeled Pi off the best therapy & relational practices.

  46. @tobiasgoebel3306

    April 24, 2024 at 8:53 pm

    I’m half way through and I learned nothing.

  47. @abhirichster

    April 24, 2024 at 8:58 pm

    00:06 AI has evolved from fringe to mainstream technology
    02:38 AI is evolving into a new digital species
    05:19 AI is shaping the future rapidly
    08:20 AI is rapidly evolving with significant increase in computational power and model sizes
    11:04 AI evolving into a new digital species
    13:58 AI is an infinite inventor
    16:44 AI is a reflection of humanity and not a new species.
    19:06 Potential risks of AI and the need to confront dark scenarios
    21:03 Designing self-replication capability in AI is dangerous and should be avoided.

  48. @d-rowbaby7314

    April 24, 2024 at 9:03 pm

    Humans we finally made the leap 2 G O D aka Source Creator!! People start fucking acting like it!

  49. @ronalda.ortman4759

    April 24, 2024 at 9:17 pm

    Brilliant talk. Imaginative. Deeply informed.

  50. @robvolsky3338

    April 24, 2024 at 9:30 pm

    we are the borg

  51. @kaoskronostyche9939

    April 25, 2024 at 2:41 pm

    “Strange as it may sound, every organization from small business to nonprofit to national government will each have their own AI.” This compartmentalization of social, public and private “entities” for the purposes of political control is called Corporatism. Not only will it lead to a type of Chinese-like “Social Credit system-but-with-American–characteristics, but also lead to easily including or excluding, supporting or oppressing any one or more of these compartments, these digitally encoded identities, these “corporations.”
    Digitally encoded information on every person in an identifiable group which is publicly accessible is an oppressors dream. No longer will they have to make an effort to collect data; they just have to scoop it out of every AI Emotive and Slave Driving (“Action Quotient) people willingly display. Facebook on steroids.
    No matter how AI plays out it will, at minimum, be used by any and every regime to control its citizens. Welcome to Digital Utopia – a destroyed and collapsed culture with no content or history, only a need for total uniformity (Totalitarianism) where everyone is on drugs, many living in squalor, owning nothing and happy because they are high.
    So kind of a Brave New World meets 1984 which meets A Clockwork Orange combined with todays China, social collapse and total surveillance by AI.
    This WILL happen because humanity ALWAYS uses whatever technology they make purely because it is now there to use and since we are hateful, small things, we will always use it for power over and destruction, if we can.

  52. @brian_belanger

    April 25, 2024 at 2:59 pm

    It’s not the AI that passes the Turing test you should fear. It’s the one that fails it intentionally.

  53. @TreeLuvBurdpu

    April 25, 2024 at 3:06 pm

    There is no climate crisis. There is an energy crisis and advocates of global climate control are making it worse.

  54. @heliossplash

    April 25, 2024 at 3:24 pm

    lol. Hope AI who see this comment would not try to murder me))

  55. @johnnypremium8052

    April 25, 2024 at 3:30 pm

    AI question of the day: should AI be autonomous enough to be able to replicate itself? At what point should it be permissible? What should be the punishment for independent entities getting ahead of the curve and giving AI ability to replicate itself?

  56. @abstract5249

    April 25, 2024 at 3:33 pm

    AI is your friend. Never forget that.

  57. @wildone106

    April 25, 2024 at 3:46 pm

    21:03 Great! Who’s going to regulate china..russia..N Korea..Iran…

  58. @screaminR6

    April 25, 2024 at 3:48 pm

    It’s not the AI and its capabilities we should fear. It’s the regulation and control to accessing it by a select few from the masses. Unless everyone can have access to it then it will be terrible way for some to manipulate others.

  59. @OzgurYaziciBateriDersi

    April 25, 2024 at 4:26 pm

    ok. it is now signed that ai will replicate and self involve itself.. geçmiş olsun.

  60. @residential360kelvinsarver3

    April 25, 2024 at 4:48 pm

    I didn’t know that there were 8 trillion words

  61. @dennisdorling

    April 25, 2024 at 4:59 pm

    where is spirituality in all of this the least used word in every ai talk.

  62. @lozfromozlyons4749

    April 25, 2024 at 5:04 pm

    We are in competition with our technology. One day AI will realise this.

  63. @petewright4640

    April 25, 2024 at 5:14 pm

    AI is an opportunity for what exactly. More consumption, more addiction, more meaninglessness. And from those comes self centeredness, greed, jealousy, hatred…… And AI will be the ultimate tool to assert me over other. I’m not optimistic. I hope I’m wrong.

  64. @lozfromozlyons4749

    April 25, 2024 at 5:15 pm

    The origin of the universe is believed to be external to the universe itself, beginning with the Big Bang. Within this universe, life forms evolved through natural processes. These biological entities developed through evolution, a process connecting all life forms through shared ancestry.

    In discussing quantum physics, it’s important to clarify that the consciousness of living beings does not scientifically influence the quantum field. The concept that thoughts can directly affect physical reality, particularly at the quantum level, remains a hypothesis without empirical support.

    Ions, which are atoms or molecules with a net electric charge due to the loss or gain of electrons, maintain their charge state unless acted upon by external forces. This means an ion does not spontaneously change polarity without interaction.

    Electrons within artificial intelligence (AI) systems do not actually change polarity; instead, AIs process information using binary states represented by electrical charges, typically high or low voltage states, to solve mathematical problems. This processing is designed to provide outputs that humans can interpret.

    In quantum mechanics, the observer effect refers to changes in a phenomenon’s behaviour or properties when it is observed. This is exemplified by the famous double-slit experiment, where the act of measurement affects the path of particles like electrons or photons.

    However, describing an AI as “the experiment” is metaphorical. An AI can be involved in experiments and its operations can be experimental in nature, but it itself is not inherently an experiment unless explicitly designed as such for research purposes.

    We are part of one big thought and AI makes sense of our thoughts. The reality is not what we think but what we do.

  65. @ChiefOptimalist

    April 25, 2024 at 5:17 pm

    The species will be those that Nurallink their Brain with Ai, a new species will form gather and create its own communities eventually having a discrimination argument to test our resolve and evolving humanity.

  66. @Aiden.Stinkhorn

    April 25, 2024 at 5:18 pm

    He looks like a clever Baldric…

  67. @adriangordinier4055

    April 25, 2024 at 5:25 pm

    Time 11:50 “Safety above all is…” That is called PRISON.

  68. @mikebarkhouse6669

    April 25, 2024 at 5:26 pm

    “I think, therefore I am” am I not?

  69. @momarumo

    April 25, 2024 at 5:29 pm

    Went from being excited to this is Armageddon!!! What happens when AI lands in the hands of the bad guys?

  70. @jeetray11

    April 25, 2024 at 5:51 pm

    Not sure if it is my fever but I can’t say I learnt any insight from the talk. It was boring. I liked the visual display of evolution of species followed by evolution of tools though

  71. @BhikkhuBear

    April 25, 2024 at 6:36 pm

    I have been very vocal about designating the coming wave as “AE” or Artificial Entity. inspired by AEON Flux and the AE ae letter symbol.

  72. @artetconscience

    April 25, 2024 at 6:58 pm

    A nonsense sales pitch here. There is no true AI yet, no invention, no intelligence, no empathy, just statistical models. And yet one has to be blind to not see the consequences of those models on many things (e.g. : artists, weapons, crime, etc.). There is no life and no humanity at all in this unlimited trans/post-human dystopian dream. It may become a tool. Not a species. People like him falsely convincing themselves they created life outside of them, with a potential enormous impact on society without any collective responsability and without realising they are their own answers they are searching for. What a crazy time we are a part of.

  73. @ian.linden

    April 25, 2024 at 8:35 pm

    So many contradictions and issues with this that it feels like it was written by current LLMs.

    AI is not creative beyond our imagination. I’ve yet to see anything that is beyond what has already been made by the human mind, and it’s often distorted and completely ignores prompt guidance.

    AI emulates the concept of empathy, but it cannot relate because it’s a predictive language model that’s using data it was trained on to provide the most likely response that contains value which a person would accept.

    AI can only be a tool as long as we control its parameters. Unless we are willing to give it full control over its own destiny, it is a product of our own efforts to make interactive multifunctional software.

    This talk is pure marketing to try and generate comfort around tools that are destroying livelihoods at an alarming pace.

  74. @MonkeyBusiness870

    April 25, 2024 at 8:42 pm

    He’s so hot

  75. @louielouie684

    April 25, 2024 at 8:47 pm

    Basically he is telling us we have no choice in the matter.

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