Various research concludes that artificial intelligence (AI) has already surpassed humans in some tasks. He Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2024, published by Stanford University, claims that this technology is already better at image classification, visual reasoning, and English comprehension. However, it is currently lagging behind in more complex tasks such as advanced-level mathematics, common sense visual reasoning, and planning.
For Kilnam Chon, “artificial intelligence will be smarter than us in 10, 20 or, at most, 30 years.” This 81-year-old computer scientist, known as the father of the Internet in Korea, warns of the consequences by comparing humans to monkeys: “We can control the monkeys, but they can’t control us. If AI becomes smarter, it will become the human being and we will become the monkey. “She will control us humans and not us her.”
If AI is on its way to being smarter than humans, should its development be slowed? Chon recalls that in 2023 there was a moratorium proposal to stop the development of some tools for six months. More than a thousand top businessmen, intellectuals and researchers related to this technology signed an open letter in which they “requested a pause in the development and testing of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4”, the latest version of the great language model using ChatGPT. Now, OpenAI has unveiled GPT-4o and is expected to release its new model, GPT-5, in mid-2024.
“It didn’t work,” emphasizes this expert, who highlights that companies continue to develop this type of technology in order to “earn a fortune.” But then, how can you ensure that AI is a tool for good and not evil? “Unfortunately, no one knows,” says Chon in an interview during the conference. Cyber Immunity from Kaspersky, an event held in April in Dubai and to which EL PAÍS was invited by the organizing cybersecurity company. The strategy of several countries and regions, such as Europe, involves regulating artificial intelligence.
Asia’s first internet
If this computer scientist is known for anything, professor emeritus of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, is for his contributions to the development of the internet. He developed the first two internet nodes in Asia, called the Software Development Network or SDN, which went live in 1982. In 1985, it connected about 20 universitiesnational research laboratories and corporate laboratories in South Korea Two years later, it was connected to other parts of Asia, such as Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Chon, who graduated in engineering sciences from Osaka University in Japan and has a doctorate in computer science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), says that there was a time when “the Internet was for select people. Until the 90s, only the elite had access. But once the web was invented, the internet became accessible to everyone. That’s the world we live in now. “We can’t go back to the 80s anymore.”
In 2012, Chon entered the Internet Hall of Fame, an honorary recognition by the Internet Society of individuals who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the Internet. When collecting the prize, asked the public this question: “Imagine that when you leave this room, you can no longer use the internet. What would you do?”. When asked this question during the interview, the expert laughs out loud: “Are you asking me the same question I asked all those years ago? As a teacher, I ask the students that.”
He could not leave the room where this interview was held, in the Museum of the Future in Dubai, and do without the internet: “It is inevitable. “You can’t live without it anymore.” He gives as an example the situation in China, which he describes as an extreme case: “You can’t get a ticket or take a taxi or buy anything without the internet. The Chinese no longer use cash. Ask a Chinese person what they would do if the internet didn’t work. I couldn’t even give alms to a beggar,” says Chon, who says that those who beg there on the street usually carry a QR code to receive money. This is “the direction we are heading,” he warns.
Exclusion and insecurity on the Internet
Despite this, 2.6 billion people still did not have access to the internet in 2023, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU, for its acronym in English). “It may be due to lack of economic resources, living in a remote area or even having a visual disability, such as blindness. In these cases, using the internet is much more difficult.” The computer pioneer considers it unacceptable that a part of the population is excluded from the opportunities offered by the Internet: “Everyone should have access, not just a part.”
Still, Chon is concerned about something about using the Internet: security. In particular, the ransomwarethe software malicious that locks a victim’s data or device and threatens to keep it locked. “They force you to pay a lot of money, millions of dollars, or else you can’t use a hospital’s systems or other critical systems. It is terrible and we do not know how to control it,” she indicates.
Although multiple experts try to make the Internet a safe place, Chon warns that cybercriminals always find a way to get in: “Unfortunately, we are not winning.” Multiple cybersecurity companies use AI to detect malicious software. But cybercriminals also use it for their own purposes. With AI, the threat from attackers “will be much worse.” “They could be smarter. Maybe we have to beg them: ‘Can you please help us?’” he says.
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