Computers are 'a new species', says Woz

Steve Wozniak has given a speech at Michigan State University, saying that A.I. is coming on leaps and bounds, to the point where humans have 'created a new species'.

The man who co-founded Apple and created the machines that are the ancestors of the entire Apple computing range, warns that with every passing computing invention we are, essentially, replacing ourselves.

"Every time we invent a computer to do something else, it's doing our work for us, making ourselves less relevant. The cyborgs are winning! The androids are winning!" he told graduates.

Spielberg called it

"Artificial intelligence will in the future become more and more like a real person, like a friend you would want to go and meet," he continued.

"Somebody that can talk to your face; somebody that can understand things [and] knows the kind of jokes you like; [somebody] that knows what sort of things to say depending on how slowly you're talking then; a real person."

Does this mean we're not far off developing the walking, talking teddy bear from 2001 Spielberg opus A.I. Artificial Intelligence? Woz didn't explicitly say that, but we reckon that's what he was getting at.

Sense and sensibility

"One of the things is you've got to have human senses. How does a computer ever create art, for example, if it can't sense things that a human understands, like the wind on a beach?

"Well, our computers have gotten hearing and seeing, they've got feeling, touch sensitive; they can sense motion, just like our inner ear," he continued.

We'd argue that a spot of emotion wouldn't go amiss, although that's completely beside the point.

And anyone who thinks 3D TV is a bit rubbish has a comrade in Woz; he reckons holograms are set to be where it's at.

"Pretty soon we're going to have holograms, which are much better than what you call 3D television. We've created a new species; no question. We're creators and, like I said, we're making ourselves less relevant."

Via Digital Trends