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Hugo de Garis | |
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 De Garis in 2006 | |
| Born | 1947 (age 77–78) Sydney, Australia |
| Occupation | AI researcher |
Hugo de Garis (born 1947) is an Australian retired researcher in the sub-field ofartificial intelligence (AI) known asevolvable hardware. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he performed research on the use ofgenetic algorithms to evolveartificial neural networks using three-dimensionalcellular automata insidefield programmable gate arrays.[1] He has written about his belief in an coming war between the supporters and opponents ofintelligent machines, with the potential for the elimination of humanity byartificial superintelligences.[2]
De Garis originally studiedtheoretical physics, but he abandoned this field in favour of artificial intelligence. In 1992 he received his PhD fromUniversité Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
From 1993 to 2000 de Garis was a researcher at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International inKansai Science City, Japan. At ATR's Human Information Processing Research Laboratories (ATR-HIP), he aimed to create a billion-neuronartificial brain he called a "cellular automata machine brain" (CAM-brain) by the year 2001. He predicted CAM-brains could scale indefinitely and could be used to create asteroid-sized brain-like computers.[1][3] De Garis moved toStarlab in Brussels in 2000, and the HIP laboratory was closed in February 2001.[4] Starlab went bankrupt in 2001. De Garis published his last "CAM-Brain" research paper in 2002.[5]
He was associate professor of computer science atUtah State University from 2001 to 2006. Starting in June 2006 he was part of the advisory board of Novamente, a commercial company which aimed to createartificial general intelligence. After 2006 he was a professor atXiamen University andWuhan University where he taughttheoretical physics andcomputer science. In 2008 he received a 3 millionChinese yuan grant (around $436,000) to build an artificial brain for China as part of theBrain Builder Group atWuhan University.[6] He served on the editorial board ofEngineering Letters.[7]De Garis retired in late 2010.[8]
During his work on CAM-Brain, De Garis began publicly expressing concerns aboutexistential risk from artificial intelligence.[1][2][9] In 2005, he published the bookThe Artilect War: Cosmists vs. Terrans: A Bitter Controversy Concerning Whether Humanity Should Build Godlike Massively Intelligent Machines.[10] In his book, De Garis predicts that by the end of the 21st centuryartificial superintelligences, which he calls "artificial intellects" or "artilects", will threaten to attainhegemony over the Earth. He foresees a major war between supporters of artilects and their opponents, resulting in billions of deaths.[10]: 234 [11][12]The supporters he calls "Cosmists", who will support artilects that they expect to colonise the universe, leaving Earth and humans behind to a sooner-or-later extinction. The opponents, "Terrans", will focus on the fate of Earth and its inhabitants, and the existential risk posed by artilects. Differences between the two groups will be irreconcilable, leading to war. He also predicts a third group, "Cyborgs", who aim to become artilects themselves by altering their own human brains, rather than falling into obsolescence.[12] Although de Garis makes arguments in favor of each side throughout the book, he concludes that he is a Cosmist.[2]
Religious studies professor Robert M. Geraci describesThe Artilect War as a religious apocalyptic scenario.[13]
one could use planetoid size asteroids to build huge 3D brain like computers containing ten to power 40 components with one bit per atom. Hence late into the 21st century, the author predicts that human beings will be confronted with the "artilect" (artificial intellect) with a brain vastly superior to the human brain with its pitiful trillion neurons.
The project of ATR Human Information Processing Research Laboratories (ATR-HIP) was closed on 28 February 2001
Prof. Hugo de Garis has recently received a 3 million RMB, 4-year grant to build China's first artificial brain, starting in 2008
gigadeath – the characteristic number of people that would be killed in any major late 21st century war, if one extrapolates up the graph of the number of people killed in major wars over the past 2 centuries
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