Prof. Michio Kaiku: Modern chatbots are just overhyped recorders

Michio Kaiku, a well-known theoretical physicist, science popularizer and futurologist, professor at New York University, does not share the concerns of some segments of humanity about the progress of AI, calling modern chatbots just “overused tape recorders”. He said this during an interview with CNN.

“It [chatbot] takes snippets of what’s on the web created by a human, splices them together and passes it off as if it created these things,” he said. “And people are saying, ‘Oh my God, it’s a human, it’s humanlike.’”

However, according to Michio Kaiku, this is not human behavior, but just the functionality of a regular tape recorder with some additional features. Moreover, according to the scientist, chatbots cannot distinguish truth from lies: “It has to be input by a human.”

According to Professor Kaikou, humanity is now in the second stage of computer evolution. The first was the analog stage, “when we calculated with sticks, stones, levers, gears, pulleys, and strings.

After World War II, mankind switched to electrical transistors. This enabled the development of microchips and helped shape the modern digital landscape. But this landscape is based on the idea of two states, such as “on” and “off,” and uses a binary notation system consisting of zeros and ones.

“Mother Nature would laugh at us because Mother Nature does not use zeros and ones,” Kaku said. “Mother Nature computes on electrons, electron waves, waves that create molecules. And that’s why we’re now entering stage three.”

He believes the next level of technology will be in the quantum realm.

IBM, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are developing their own quantum computers. Such computers can help companies with risk analysis, supply chain logistics, and machine learning. Professor Kaikou believes that in addition to business applications, quantum computing can help improve healthcare.

“Cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease – these are diseases at the molecular level. We’re powerless to cure these diseases because we have to learn the language of nature, which is the language of molecules and quantum electrons,” says Michio Kaku.