• Question: Let's say hypothetically, AI all replaced humans, do you think that our already cashless society may lose all "virtual cash" as well?

    Asked by edgylads to Yee Whye, Jun on 16 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Yee Whye Teh

      Yee Whye Teh answered on 16 Nov 2019:


      I don’t think AIs will get rid of cash, virtual or otherwise.

      We live in a society with many “agents”, each of which can make decisions, communicate with others, and work towards our own goals. Currently most agents are humans, but some are corporations (which are legal persons in the eyes of the law). Corporations can already be thought of as AI agents, but are AIs composed of both people (the employees and executives) and technologies. For example, a bank has people working in it, and has a very sophisticated network of computers to handle vast amounts of financial transactions, as well as internal rules and regulations making sure that it is secure and fraudulent activities cannot happen. It also has spokespersons that allow it to communicate with other agents. I can imagine that in the future there will be more agents that are fully “technological” and has no human components. I guess these can be thought of as AIs.

      In such a society of agents, the agents still need to trade with each other, so they will still need things which represent “value”, so that they can trade. This is effectively “virtual cash” 🙂

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