In October last year, Geek Native had a copy of the official novel Halo: Shadows of Reach to giveaway.
As is often the case, this giveaway became a geeky opinion poll with the prize going to one random participant.
Riffing on Halo’s themes a little, the question readers had to answer was whether they thought artificial intelligence (AI) would endanger humanity within their lifetime.
A fringe concern?
No, not according to Geek Native readers. Over 40% of respondents thought AI would endanger humanity. However, we didn’t define AI nor even what endangers meant in this context.
Here’s the breakdown of results.
| Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) become a danger to humanity in our lifetime? | Responses |
|---|---|
| I’m a geek, and I think AI will endanger humanity in my lifetime. | 26.54% |
| I’m a geek, and I do not think that AI will endanger humanity in my lifetime. | 34.57% |
| I’m not a geek, and I do not think that AI will endanger humanity in my lifetime. | 24.07% |
| I’m not a geek, and I think AI will endanger humanity in my lifetime. | 14.81% |
As you can see, readers were also asked to self identify as geek or not.
Geeks are a little more likely to be concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence than non-geeks.
| Geek answers only | Responses |
|---|---|
| I’m a geek, and I think AI will endanger humanity in my lifetime. | 43.43% |
| I’m a geek, and I do not think that AI will endanger humanity in my lifetime. | 56.57% |
| Non-geek answers only | Responses |
|---|---|
| I’m not a geek, and I think AI will endanger humanity in my lifetime. | 38.10% |
| I’m not a geek, and I do not think that AI will endanger humanity in my lifetime. | 61.90% |
Creative Commons credit: Hexadecimal Code by fins-pl..
What do you think? Will AI become a threat to humanity within your lifetime?
