On Thursday’s edition of PBS’s Tavis Smiley show, William Hurt, the star of AMC’s Humans (a science fiction show that addresses the future of artificial intelligence) assured PBS’s Tavis Smiley that self-aware androids weren’t the monster to worry about. No the real threat, according to the four-time Academy Award nominee, is “global warming.”
When Smiley noted top scientific minds from Dr. Stephen Hawking to Elon Musk were concerned about the dangers of artificial intelligence, Hurt responded: “I think there’s nothing about A.I. that isn’t going to be as important to us as issues as monstrous as global warming.”
The following exchange aired on the June 18 edition of PBS’s Tavis Smiley show:
TAVIS SMILEY: Let me circle back to Humans, because everybody seems to have an opinion these days on A.I., artificial intelligence. And that’s some of what this gets into obviously and causes us, at least, to wrestle with or to marinade on when we see the series.
I’ve seen comments from everybody of late. From Dr. Stephen Hawking to Elon Musk to others who are concerned about A.I. I think Elon Musk, I read a tweet or something where he suggested that we gotta be really careful with A.I. because it could be more dangerous that nukes. That’s Elon Musk’s point of view. But your, your - I want to offer two questions. You can take them any way you want to take them. One is, if you have thoughts about A.I. number one? And number two, what this series is going to cause us to wrestle with, vis-a-vis A.I.?
WILLIAM HURT: I think there’s nothing about A.I. that isn’t going to be as important to us as issues as monstrous as global warming.
