????史蒂芬·霍金、比爾·蓋茨、以及特斯拉汽車(chē)公司創(chuàng)始人埃隆?穆斯克有什么共同點(diǎn)？

????他們都擔(dān)心人工智能技術(shù)的發(fā)展可能給人類帶來(lái)難以預(yù)料的災(zāi)難。作為計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)的一個(gè)分支領(lǐng)域，人工智能可以讓機(jī)器模仿人類行為，并做出決策。

????這就是為什么穆斯克、非盈利機(jī)構(gòu)“開(kāi)放慈善項(xiàng)目”，以及旨在減輕新技術(shù)災(zāi)禍的研究機(jī)構(gòu)“生命未來(lái)研究所”決定攜手合作，資助那些防止人工智能帶來(lái)災(zāi)難的研究人員。

????到目前為止，該項(xiàng)目共給37個(gè)研究團(tuán)隊(duì)提供了總計(jì)700萬(wàn)美元的資金。

????要記住，穆斯克和其他人設(shè)想的災(zāi)難并不是好萊塢大片的典型場(chǎng)景：終結(jié)者或機(jī)器人獲得了一定的意識(shí)，開(kāi)始攻擊它們的人類主人。實(shí)際上，這一情景就本質(zhì)而言并不難實(shí)現(xiàn)。

????這些資助旨在探索因機(jī)器和機(jī)器人開(kāi)始在社會(huì)上獨(dú)立運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)（比如幫你挑揀商品的機(jī)械購(gòu)物助手和自動(dòng)駕駛汽車(chē)）而出現(xiàn)的法律問(wèn)題。一個(gè)已經(jīng)獲得撥款的研究團(tuán)隊(duì)正在研究的課題是，機(jī)器人對(duì)人身安全和財(cái)產(chǎn)造成危害后，需要負(fù)哪些法律責(zé)任？比如說(shuō)，研究人員想要搞清楚，如果一個(gè)機(jī)器人闖了紅燈，警察應(yīng)該給誰(shuí)開(kāi)罰單。

????另一個(gè)研究團(tuán)隊(duì)則在嘗試制定一套指南，幫助擁有人工智能的電腦合理化自己的行為，并向人類作出解釋。其理念在于讓人類詢問(wèn)機(jī)器為何要做出某個(gè)決定，以解決任何潛在的問(wèn)題。

????比方說(shuō)，假設(shè)有一臺(tái)擁有人工智能的電腦，它能在股市中進(jìn)行交易，為公司實(shí)現(xiàn)最大經(jīng)濟(jì)收益。如果這臺(tái)電腦表現(xiàn)出色的部分原因在于它進(jìn)行了某些非法交易，那么人類可以詢問(wèn)電腦為何選擇進(jìn)行該交易，從而制止這種行為。

????“生命未來(lái)”項(xiàng)目的撥款官員丹尼爾·杜威表示，所有這些研究項(xiàng)目都是為了做好基礎(chǔ)工作，幫助科學(xué)家和工程師創(chuàng)建一個(gè)“能以前所未有的方式與人類合作”的智能系統(tǒng)， 該資助行動(dòng)是電動(dòng)汽車(chē)制造商特斯拉公司首席執(zhí)行官穆斯克開(kāi)展的又一個(gè)超前項(xiàng)目。除了特斯拉之外，穆斯克還是民用航空航天公司SpaceX的首席執(zhí)行官。他還大膽構(gòu)想出了Hyperloop計(jì)劃，這一運(yùn)輸系統(tǒng)讓乘客坐在類似火車(chē)的客艙里，在隧道中高速往返于舊金山和洛杉磯之間。

????穆斯克于今年1月首先提出了投資人工智能研究的計(jì)劃。上周三宣布的700萬(wàn)美元贊助源自穆斯克向“生命未來(lái)研究所”捐贈(zèng)的1000萬(wàn)美元。

????盡管在人工智能領(lǐng)域已有大量研究和資金投入，尤其是大型科技公司，如谷歌和中國(guó)搜索公司百度，但杜威表示，這類研究大部分都是以提高人工智能技術(shù)的效果為目標(biāo)的。比如Facebook研發(fā)的技術(shù)和算法，可以讓這家社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)能夠識(shí)別照片中的人，即便他們的臉被擋住了。

????杜威把不同類型的人工智能研究比作核電站的員工，每個(gè)人都要扮演不同的角色。某個(gè)核電站的工程師可能會(huì)負(fù)責(zé)研究如何改善反應(yīng)堆的效率，而安全工程師則要保證反應(yīng)堆不會(huì)爆炸。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

????審校：任文科

????What do Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk have in common?

????They all fear that advances in artificial intelligence, an area of computer science in which machines can mimic human behavior and make decisions, could lead to potential unforeseen disasters down the road for humanity.

????This is why Musk, the non-profit Open Philanthropy Project, and The Future of Life Institute, a research organization that aims to mitigate possible catastrophes from emerging technology, are teaming up to reward researchers working to prevent calamities caused by artificial intelligence.

????So far, 37 research groups have received a share of the $7 million in grants made by the initiative.

????Keep in mind, the types of disasters imagined by Musk and others aren’t the typical Hollywood fare involving terminators or robots gaining some sort of consciousness and turning on their human overlords. Rather, they are more practical in nature.

????The grants are aimed to explore issues like the legal ramifications that could arise from machines and robots operating independently in society. Automated personal shopping assistants that pick up your groceries and self-driving cars are just a few possible examples. One of the research groups receiving grant is looking into ways to “manage the liability for the harms they might cause to individuals and property.” Essentially, if a robot runs a red light, the researchers want to know who should get the ticket.

????Another research group is looking to develop guidelines on how a computer embedded with artificial intelligence could rationalize and explain its actions to humans. The idea is that people would be able to ask a machine why it is making a specific decision to troubleshoot any potential problems.

????For example, consider a computer using artificial intelligence that is programmed to make trades on the stock market to achieve the best possible financial returns for a company. If part of the reason the machine is doing so well involves some form of illegal trading, a human could potentially stop the activity by asking the computer why is it making the trades it chooses to do.

????The goal for all of this research is to lay the groundwork for scientists and engineers to create intelligent systems that can “work with humans in ways that wouldn’t have been possible before,” said Daniel Dewey, a Future of Life program officer that oversees the grants.

????The grants are just another example of the type of far-out projects that Musk, the CEO of the electric-car maker Tesla, likes to be involved with. Besides Tesla, Musk is also the CEO of commercial aerospace maker SpaceX and he dreamed up the idea of Hyperloop, a transportation systemthat involves shooting train-like capsules through tunnels at high speed between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

????Musk first outlined his plans to invest in artificial intelligence research in January. The $7 million in grants announced Wednesday are part of the $10 million Musk donated to the The Future of Life Institute at that time.

????While there’s a lot of research and funding taking place in artificial intelligence, especially from big tech companieslike Googleand the Chinese search company Baidu, Dewey explained that a lot of that research is geared toward projects that are boosting the performance of artificial intelligence technology. Facebook , for example, has developed technology and algorithms that have led to the social network being able to identify people in photos even if their faces were covered up.

????Dewey likens the different kinds of artificial intelligence research to staff at a nuclear power plant, each of whom have different roles. While one power plant engineer might be working on ways to improve the efficiency of the reactor, a safety engineer would be responsible to make sure the reactor doesn’t blow up.