Artificial Intelligence Researchers Want Survival of the Fittest for RobotsNicholas West One recent development sought by the European Union is shocking: a cloud network called RoboEarth where robots can do their own research, communicate with one another, and collectively increase their intelligence in a full simulation of human interaction. It has been dubbed a Wikipedia for robots. It introduces a type of family learning essentially the nurture part of the equation where nature can only be mimicked. Once established, some of the autonomous functions that have been implemented will transcend beyond merely self-directed communication, and will enter the sphere of evolutionary intelligence. This drive for embedding evolutionary principles into robotics forms the cornerstone of new research at the University of Wyomings Evolving Artificial Intelligence Lab where the stated goal is to introduce the concept of natural selection so that robots will evolve as rivals to their human counterparts. Concerns are finally beginning to mount about the unintended consequences of creating something that has the potential to be smarter than us, as Stephen Hawking has been discussing lately. Nevertheless, research into artificial intelligence continues full steam ahead. More disturbing still are statements made by George Zarkadakis, an artificial intelligence engineer, who believes that intelligent robots will move toward procreation as they will wish to produce superior offspring. Through a simple software swap, new intelligence could be created, as well as the likelihood of other upgrades like virus protection. Incidentally, the organic component of this is also being researched by geneticists as downloadable DNA via our own human Internet. Just as we humans naturally wish that our own children become healthier, more intelligent and longer-lived versions of ourselves, so too will increasingly self-aware systems. The research at the University of Wyoming is embracing this potential: Lead researcher, Jeff Clune, has lofty ambitions that should be taken seriously as his lab has produced award-winning students and grants from NASA. Commenting on the potential of the mutations and code swaps, he states: With the rapid advances made in the realm of 3D printing, self-aware artificial intelligence could breed at the molecular level and likely begin printing out their code-upgraded progeny. Sound crazy? Clune states just such a potential: While futurists such as Ray Kurzweil, a director of engineering at Google, tend to discuss a transcendental age of Spiritual Machineswhere humans only benefit from their own enhanced intelligence as well as the coming super A.I, the opposite reality should be equally if not more strongly considered. This wave of new technology is a fundamental transformation, not simply a new gadget that can be upgraded or phased out. While Jeff Clune claims to add ethics to his lectures, his following statement demonstrates a decided lack of concern for where this genie is headed once let out of the bottle. Apparently, his role as a scientist is just to open the bottle and see what happens: Robots are already beginning to win in the economic struggle for survival. Where else will their competitive evolution take them? Article source: Recently by Nicholas West: 