AI Is Turning into Something Totally New - TED Talk

In the TED talk, AI Is Turning into Something Totally New, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman proposes that a more apt metaphor for AI is a new digital species. 

I predict that we'll come to see them as digital companions, new partners in the journeys of all our lives.

...waves of history are clearly speeding up, as each one is amplified and accelerated by the last. And if you look back, it's clear that we are in the fastest and most consequential wave ever.

The journeys of humanity and technology are now deeply intertwined. 

...today, the most advanced AIs consume more than eight trillion words in a single month of training. And all of this is set to continue. 

...just as the internet gave us the browser and the smartphone gave us apps, the cloud-based supercomputer is ushering in a new era of ubiquitous AIs. Everything will soon be represented by a conversational interface. Or, to put it another way, a personal AI. And these AIs will be infinitely knowledgeable, and soon they'll be factually accurate and reliable. They'll have near-perfect IQ. They’ll also have exceptional EQ. They’ll be kind, supportive, empathetic. These elements on their own would be transformational. Just imagine if everybody had a personalized tutor in their pocket and access to low-cost medical advice. A lawyer and a doctor, a business strategist and coach -- all in your pocket 24 hours a day.

In the past, unlocking economic growth often came with huge downsides. The economy expanded as people discovered new continents and opened up new frontiers. But they colonized populations at the same time. We built factories, but they were grim and dangerous places to work. We struck oil, but we polluted the planet. Now because we are still designing and building AI, we have the potential and opportunity to do it better, radically better. And today, we're not discovering a new continent and plundering its resources. We're building one from scratch. Sometimes people say that data or chips are the 21st century’s new oil, but that's totally the wrong image. AI is to the mind what nuclear fusion is to energy. Limitless, abundant, world-changing.

AI isn't even in some senses, new. AI is us. It's all of us. As we build out AI, we can and must reflect all that is good, all that we love, all that is special about humanity: our empathy, our kindness, our curiosity and our creativity. This, I would argue, is the greatest challenge of the 21st century, but also the most wonderful, inspiring and hopeful opportunity for all of us.