Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have warned us about it. The movie Blade Runner 2049 imagines a future based on it. There are arguments over whether it will herald next-level intelligence, or threaten our very existence. It’s AI, and it’s already part of our lives.
Artificial Intelligence – Then and Now
The term “AI” was first used by John McCarthy, an American computer scientist. It was the topic of the 1956 Dartmouth Conference, the first gathering devoted to the subject. A collection of researchers joined together to discuss advancing technology. This meeting of the minds ultimately laid the foundation for Artificial Intelligence advancements to come.
Artificial Intelligence is more than just the Hollywood glorification of robots superseding humans. Artificial Intelligence also refers to advancements in self-driving cars, drone monitoring and automated surgery. Surveys show we’re more receptive to robots doing our dirty work and less willing to see them as human replacements. We want our creations to be human-supervised. So even if a procedure for joint replacement uses a surgical robot, we still want a human doctor to be working alongside the machine.
Weak and Strong AI
There are two types of AI. WEAK AI is trained for a particular task or field of study. This kind of AI excels at a specific job and is restricted by the rules imposed upon it. An example is Apple’s Siri. This intelligent assistant uses the internet as a reference to answer programmed queries. Because Siri has a vast database to consult and is programmed to have a bit of a personality, she seems pretty smart! However, Siri performs badly in conversations for which she has not been programmed.
STRONG AI, also known as full AI, has generalized cognitive human abilities. It functions as an ersatz human mind. This type of artificial intelligence is programmed to have perception, beliefs and other cognitive states. In essence, strong artificial intelligence can think for itself. Because the concept of intelligence is hard to define, measuring the success of strong AI is difficult. Perhaps the machine will let us know once it’s reached, or even surpassed, human capacity?
The Future of AI
Philosopher and technologist Nick Bostrom said, “Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make.” Bostrom postulates this would be the tipping point when artificial intelligence will have the ability to create better inventions than humans. Is the hair on the back of your arms standing up yet? Take comfort in the fact that Bostrom has a solution for an AI-fueled machine revolution. He believes the key will be to create artificial intelligence that learns what humans value. That way, a thinking machine can act in accordance to human standards and morals.
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