November 01, 2026 07:09 am (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Luxury hotel pool turns fatal: Two foreign nationals die in suspected electrocution | Political storm in J&K: 24 NC MLAs turn against Omar Abdullah after cabinet reshuffle | Missing for two months: 72-year-old Indian-origin woman found dead in California canal | Cyclone-hit Odisha gets aerial lifeline as Coast Guard helicopters deliver essential supplies | Ajay Devgn challenges FDA notice in Vimal ad row; Tukaram Mundhe says proceedings complete | ‘Dilli na Dhaka’: Anti-India slogans erupt at massive Bangladesh rally, Tarique Rahman targeted | Missing for two months: 72-year-old Indian-origin woman found dead in California canal | At least 13 killed as Russian drone strikes railway station in Ukraine | Ex-Bangladesh Air Force officer linked to Sheikh Hasina-fleeing clip found dead | At least 5 killed due to Cyclone Arnab in Andhra Pradesh
UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Artificial Intelligence: a danger to mankind, or the key to a better world?

| @indiablooms | Sep 13, 2018, at 08:18 am

New York, Sept 13 (IBNS): Siri, Alexa and Cortana are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (or A.I.), which is playing an increasingly pervasive role in our lives.

In the background, AI is being used in a huge range of settings, from helping to land a plane, to getting a parcel to you more quickly, and deciding whether you get a job interview.

But there are growing concerns that these powerful technologies pose equally powerful dangers, even posing an existential threat to humanity itself.

Some legislators and technologists are worried that so-called “general AI” – or machine-based intelligence that resembles basic human intelligence - could develop superintelligence capabilities at an exponential rate, escaping human control, with untold consequences for mankind.

On 11 September, UNESCO, the UN’s  Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, hosted a roundtable discussion entitled “Artificial Intelligence: Reflection on its Complexity and Impact on Society”, featuring experts from academia and industry.

The talk was hosted by Peter-Paul Verbeek, [PRON FAIR-BAKE] a Philosophy Professor at Twente University in the Netherlands, and a member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST).