Can Artificial Intelligence Predict the Future?

Artificial Intelligence is expected to handle many things in the future; is predicting that future one of them? In a recent Article by The Economist, an AI called GPT-2, created by Openai, was asked to do just that. GPT-2 answered questions on the big themes for 2020. At this time of year, predictions are front and center. What did our AI have to say about the year ahead? Read the article to see how GP2 answered these questions.

Q: Which technologies are worth watching in 2020?

Q: What is the future of AI?

Q: Are you worried that ai technology can be misused?

Q: How worried do you think we humans should be that ­machines will take our jobs?

Q: Do fake news stories, generated using ai, pose a threat to democracy?

Q: Are we likely to see this tactic being used in the 2020 American presidential elections?

Q: Do you, GPT-2, represent a step towards more powerful artificial general intelligence?

Q: Do you think the trade war between China and America will be resolved in 2020?

Q: Do you think Donald Trump will win a second term?

Q: How do you see the economic outlook for 2020?

Q: Do you have any other predictions for 2020?

Q: Do you have any advice for our readers?

I have been very vocal about my feeling that prediction is impossible. Those that count on the crystal ball end up eating a lot of broken glass. This unpredictability stems from the rapid pace of change, the number of building blocks and their combinations, unforeseen obstacles and accelerants, societal factors, and significant geopolitical uncertainty. Given these factors, is AI our only hope when analyzing this future? Let’s look back next year and see how it did.

Originally published at http://frankdiana.net on November 26, 2019.