AI Will Be The Future, Says Android Creator

The creator of Android, Andy Rubin has come out in favour of artificial intelligence and believes that AI will form the basis of the next big development in computing.

Speaking to veteran tech journalist Walt Mossberg at the Code/Mobile conference in Half Moon Bay, California, Rubin revealed that believed AI will form the basis of the next big phase in computing.

Computing Future?

Rubin (pictured left) is the co-founder of the Android operating system and he joined Google in 2005 to jump-start the mobile software development efforts of the search engine giant.

Android of course was based on open standards and was built with open source software components, so it is easier to enable the OS to run on different mobile devices. It also greatly simplified application development for these devices, and Android soon became the leading mobile operating system in the world.

Rubin left Google in 2013 and since then he has created his startup incubator Playground, which has recently secured $300m (£195m) in financing.

“There is a point in time – I have no idea when it is – it won’t be in the next ten years, or twenty years – where there is some form of AI, for lack of a better term, that will be the next computing platform,” he was quoted by Recode as saying.

Rubin also pointed out that the data gathered by Internet of Things (IoT) devices, when combined with rapidly evolving deep learning technologies, will create highly intelligent AI networks. He said these networks would know your thermostat settings in a person’s house, a person’s exercise routine, and even the chemical balance of a person’s swimming pool.

“The thing that’s gonna be new is the part of the cloud that’s forming the intelligence from all the information that’s coming,” Rubin reportedly said. “Maybe that thing in the pool, not a bad idea, if its job is to train a neural network on what chemical analysis of water means.”

AI Danger

In August scientists revealed they can use artificial intelligence to learn more about the military strategy of Islamic State. Researchers concluded that using AI algorithms to study patterns and behaviour of IS extremists could be of “significant” help for both the US military and policymakers in the future.

Gartner meanwhile has previously claimed that artificial intelligence and smart machines will be able to make increasingly significant business decisions in the very near future, effectively assimilating the role of the CIO.

Rubin’s comments stand in marked contrast to some other notable tech leaders including Professor Stephen Hawking, Tesla founder Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

IBM fellow Rob High told TechweekEurope in February that it will be centuries before sentient machines could possibly surpass human intelligence.

Despite this others, including Professor Stephen Hawking, have warned that artificial intelligence could spell the end of life as we know it on Planet Earth, and that humans have 100 years left before AI-powered robots seize control.

Last year, Elon Musk, the South Africa-born inventor and entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of PayPal and chief executive of both SpaceX and Tesla Motors, warned against the dangers of AI, describing it as an “existential threat”.

In the summer Professor Hawking joined Elon Musk, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, in signing an open letter drafted by the Future of Life Institute. In the letter, they argued that AI development should not go on uncontrolled and they called for a ban on offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control in order to save humanity from a military AI arms race.

Steve Wozniak has also predicted that in the future, the world would be controlled by artificial intelligence and that robots will treat humans as their pets.

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