VOA常速英语2016--科学家警告人工智能对人类的利与弊

Scientists Warn AI Can Be Dangerous as Well as Helpful to Humans 科学家警告人工智能对人类的利与弊

LOS ANGELES—

Artificial intelligence, or AI, no longer simply exists in science fiction movies and books. Scientists warn AI has and will continue to change almost every aspect of how people conduct business and live. Researchers say artificial intelligence can be a threat, as well as helpful, to humans.

From the iPhone personal assistant Siri, to doing searches on the Internet, to the autopilot function, simple artificial intelligence has been around for some time, but is quickly getting more complex and more intelligent.

从私人助理Siri,到互联网搜索,再到自动驾驶功能,简单的AI，即人工智能已经存在了一段时间,但很快它将变得更为复杂且更加聪明。

”If we are going to make systems that are going to be more intelligent than us, it’s absolutely essential for us to understand how to absolutely guarantee that they only do things that we are happy with,” said Stuart Russell, computer science professor at the University of California Berkeley.

“如果我们要让人工智能比我们更加聪明, 我们完全有必要了解如何绝对让保证它们只做我们喜欢的事情。”

He said many present-day jobs that are labor¹ intensive, such as agricultural jobs, or repetitive tasks such as call centers, or even jobs that require data analysis, such as in the financial industry, will be replaced by machines with artificial intelligence.

计算机科学教授斯图尔特·罗素表示当今的许多劳动密集型工作,或金融行业所需的数据分析将被人工智能取代。

”But if we replaced all the jobs that require human physical labor and then we replace all the jobs that require human mental labor, then you have to ask, 'What’s left?'” Russell asked.

“但如果我们取代所有需要人类体力及脑力劳动的工作，你会问了,那还有什么剩下的?”

New Jobs

IBM’s Chief Science Officer of Cognitive² Computing³ Guruduth Banavar sees a future in which new jobs such as data engineering will be created.

IBM的古鲁杜特·巴那瓦就正在关注这样一个将创造数据工程等新就业机会的未来。

”The future will require everybody to work with these learning reasoning machines. So I think the skill set for many of these jobs will end up being different in the future,” Banavar said.

“这样的未来将会要求每个人都能够同这些学习型机器协作。因此我认为这些工作的技能组合在未来将会截然不同。”

Russell envisions that AI will change the economy and the current way of life.

罗素设想AI将会改变经济及目前的生活方式。

“Most people will be employed, possibly even self-employed, in providing individualized personal services to other human beings, that we won’t have mass employment in manufacturing or in financial services,” said Russell. “The kinds of scenarios⁴ where there is a giant factory or a giant office building with thousands of people doing the same thing will go away.”

“大多数人会被雇佣,甚至可能会化身成为自由职业者,为其他人提供个性化服务,这样在制造业及金融服务行业我们就不会有大规模的就业。” “巨大工厂或大型办公大楼中上千人从事同样工作的场景将不复存在。”

Artificial intelligence is already transforming the health care industry. AI can process huge amounts of data and have the most up-to-date research to help doctors diagnose and treat patients.

人工智能已经改变了医疗保健行业。人工智能能够处理大量的数据并且掌握着帮助医生诊断及治疗病人的最新研究数据。

IBM’s Watson technology is already in hospitals in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

IBM的华生技术已经在北美、南美、欧洲和亚洲的医院安家落户。

“The different between going to a doctor who has Watson versus⁵ not having Watson is very big, because when you go to a doctor today you might find somebody who is 10 years out of date,” said Banavar.

“有无华生技术之间的区别很大,因为当你今天去看医生你会发现，有些人已经落后别人10年了。”

Autonomous⁶ Weapons

There is also a dangerous side of artificial intelligence, using drone technology and AI to create autonomous weapons.

但人工智能也有着危险的一面，那就是远超无人机技术的自动武器。

”The risk with autonomous weapons is that people will use them as a kind of poor man’s weapon of mass destruction - a poor man’s nuclear weapon,” said Russell, who advocates for the international community to create treaties to ban autonomous weapons.

“自动武器的风险在于人们会将它们当作穷人的大规模毁灭性武器使用，它在穷人手里就成为了核武器。”

“It is a race against time because the weapons are starting to emerge, the research is moving into development, development is moving into production,” Russell said.

Impact on Society

Banavar has a more optimistic view of the impact of artificial intelligence on society. He said examples of benefits include the autopilot function and search engines.

罗素表示国际社会需要出台禁止这种类型武器条约。

“I’m very firmly in the camp that says AI is a friend and that it is going to be beneficial to humanity. In fact, I see not having AI as a really bad thing for humanity,” Banavar said.

“这是一场同时间的赛跑,因为这样的武器一旦开始出现, 研究就会进入开发阶段,然后立即投入生产。”

While it is up for debate whether artificial intelligence will overall hurt or benefit mankind, researchers agree it is a fact that the technology is and will continue to transform many aspects of life.

虽然人工智能对人类的利弊仍有待商榷,但研究人员表示技术正在并且将继续改变生活的方方面面仍是不争的事实。

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

3 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

4 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

5 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

6 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。