© Tomohiro Ohsumi | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesBillionaire Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Corp., shakes hands with a human-like robot called Pepper, developed by the company's Aldebran Robotics unit, during a news conference in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
That's according to SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. The Japanese billionaire spoke from the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. In about 30 years, artificial intelligence will have an IQ of 10,000, Son says. By comparison, the average human IQ is 100 and genius is 200, according to Son. Mensa, "the High IQ society," starts accepting members with an IQ score of 130.
The idea of machine learning becoming smarter than the human brain is often referred to as the "singularity." When exactly this will happen is oft-debated among the tech community.
"Singularity is the concept that [mankind's] brain will be surpassed, this is the tipping point, crossing point, that artificial intelligence, computer intelligence surpass [mankind's] brain and that is happening in this century for sure. I would say there is no more debate, no more doubt," Son says.
Son is particularly aggressive in his prediction of how soon the singularity will happen - in the "next 30 years or so," he says.
It is in Son's best interest to believe in the power of artificial intelligence. Not only is he the leader of a tech company, but he is heavily invested in the future of AI. Son is in charge of a $100 billion Vision Fund, which he expects to invest within five years, all in companies that have at least some relationship to AI.
The tech executive believes that artificial intelligence will dramatically change every industry. Son, 60, remembers the first time he encountered the smartphone, a tool which has transformed the world we currently live in.
"When I met with Steve Jobs, before he announced the iPhone, he told me, 'Masa, Masa, if you see what I'm developing, when I'm finished, I'm going to show you, you're going to piss off your pants.' And when I saw it, I actually almost did."
Today, humanoid robots like SoftBank's Pepper, which can perceive human emotions, according to its website, impress most of us. In the future Son envisions, we will laugh at the capabilities of Pepper.
"Thirty years from now, they are going to learn by themselves, they are maybe going to laugh at you and us," Son says. "Today they look cute, they will stay cute, but they will be super smart."
Currently, some robots are smarter than humans in some areas, says Son. "But 30 years from now, most of the subjects, they will be so much smarter than us. Because they are going to be a million times smarter than today, million times," says Son.
"We mankind created tools, the premise was mankind were always smarter than the tool we invented so we control," he says. "This is the first time ... the tool becomes smarter than ourselves."
One area where humans will always reign supreme over robots, though, is imagination, says Son.
"If you have to envision, 10 years or 30 years later, at least some humans will have a better imagination than them. So, it's not the end. The power of the brain is no limit. The imagination that we can have has no limit. So we are also going to improve our imaginations and our feelings, gut feeling."
So what will change with super A.I’s in the world, since we already have geniuses…
And let’s assume a super high (meaningless) IQ AI systems can’t formulate an algorithm for imagination… and having some semblance of imagination as a species, is it assumed that imagination is something that gives rise to solely benevolent manifestations in the world, history seems to say otherwise…
With a narrow lens, probably one can see great steps, if not leaps forward, that would benefit all the species on this Big Blue Marvel…
Then again certain groupings of perhaps clinically psychopathic people and a mix of others perhaps suffering from some type psychopathology, have a detrimental effect within the power structures of the world, and just within everyday ordinary life, and as smart as some of them might be their actions could be thought of as simply stupid… that being utterly selfish, and without conscience.
I forget the author of the following idea, but it goes like the following, ‘It’s difficult to outthink stupid…’ no matter how intelligent, stupid can always do something that an intelligent person would consider as unthinkable…
How smart would an A.I have to be to outthink the PTB, would it do the unthinkable… and what happens when the usual suspects get their hands on such technology before anybody else… Though with the way thing are going we might not be around as a species in thirty years… though they might be.