Great art can be interpreted in different ways. One person's satire could easily be another's optimistic science fiction. So it was with this blog post about AI...
As a world we are just beginning to get used to the idea that we can build machines that exceed our mental capacities in certain domains.
Arguably not since the age Neanderthal man have we shared or planet with entities that come close to human beings in terms of logic and reasoning power, combined with ability to express that reasoning to other entities i.e. us.
This TED talk gives a neat idea of the capabilities of certain algorithms in terms of analysing images but also working things out for themselves.
As with all revolutions - agriculture, industry, communication, video gaming, the adoption curve looks a little like this...
In the case of AI, safety comes in a number of forms, for example:
- Safety in believing that your domain has not yet been conquered by AI
- Safety in hoping that nobody develops a nasty form of AI
- Safety in believing that the technological innovations coming from AI will not be culturally relevant in your particular circle and therefore aren't an interesting topic of conversation
What about the big questions though, will machines ever possess emotional intelligence, be able to make judgement calls, have morals?
Understandably scientific opinion is split on this, probably more in favour of the no camp. That said, to dismiss thinking machines as ripe only for hard data analysis type tasks strikes me as displaying our natural human arrogance. After all as described in this excellent radio 4 documentary AI has already contributed significantly to our philosophical understanding of our place in the world. Machines are also at the forefront of certain areas of modern artistic expression. Back in 1995 I remember laughing at a friend for giving up his engineering degree to study artificial intelligence. These days I am scrambling to catch up...
