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Giese 1
Justin Giese
Professor Sansing
English 1001
20 July 2015
They Could Be Here Soon(Working)
Humanity is constantly trying to make things easier for themselves. This can be seen very
clearly in our technology. Instead of opening Safari or Apple Maps to search for something, we
go to Siri instead. But Siri often times misunderstands you or can’t understand you. What if there
was something where that wasn’t an issue? This would be something an artificial intelligence
could do with ease. It can also go beyond this and even carry a conversation with you. This idea
has existed for decades and it may not be much longer until it’s no longer an idea but something
real.
The term artificial intelligence, or AI, has a slightly different meaning and mental picture
for each person. Some people will think of the incredibly intelligent and powerful human like
AI’s of Terminator and I, Robot. While others may think of the disembodied but equally
intelligent AI’s of popular video games, such as Cortana of the Halo franchise and EDI of the
Mass Effect trilogy. But for this we are going to go with the idea of a machine or computer
program that has gained human level or greater intelligence. As well as sometimes exhibiting
human like properties such as speech or emotion.
Though the idea of a computer with human like intelligence has been around since the
1950’s we could still be a long ways off from creating the first artificial intelligence. This is
because: “[a]lthough computers can solve very complex problems, often requiring power far
surpassing that of a human mind, they cannot yet exhibit as much common sense as a three-year-
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old child” (“Artificial intelligence”). This lack of common sense that is natural to humans
represents one of the many road blocks that we will have to work around if we want to one day
see an artificial intelligence.
A common idea for an artificial intelligence is a human like one. Something with a
humanlike body or avatar to interact with people. As well as having emotions just like humans
do. This is much like Cortana of the popular video game franchise Halo. Cortana was created
from the scan of a human brain giving these humanlike qualities. But this takes place hundreds
of years in the future. The problem right now is: “[n]o one really knows how the human mind
works. Many theories have been proposed about the brain, but scientists are still a long way from
understanding it” (“Artificial intelligence”). This is a major road block in the advancement of
artificial intelligence and until we do figure out how the human brain works it may just be
hundreds of years until we have a humanlike artificial intelligence.
The creation of the first real artificial intelligence will take many years despite how
simple it sounds. “In the 1960s, most leading artificial intelligence researchers were confident
that they would meet their goal within a few decades. After all, aeronautic engineering had gone
from the first jet aircraft to an astronaut on the moon in 30 years” (Norvig).It’s a task that could
possibly take us longer than getting to mars or explore all of the oceans depths.
What we once thought of as a simple task of creating an artificial intelligence has proven
to be far more difficult than we thought. This is because: “The difference is that there are no
simple formulas for intelligence; the discipline lacks its own F = ma or E = mc²” (Norvig).
Humans have the ability to learn and gather knowledge naturally while that is something that
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needs to be programmed into a machine. Even then the fields that a computer can learn in will be
narrow and even then it may not be considered truly intelligent.
The creation of the first artificial intelligence can’t be a solely human effort. It will have
to be created through a partnership between humans and current computers. One of the best
current examples of this is Google’s translation system. “Another key aspect of machine
translation is the computer-human partnership. Modern machine translation systems start by
gathering millions of documents from across the internet that have already been previously
translated by humans” (Norvig).
Something humans can do to advance the development of artificial intelligence is to give
it more freedom. This can be seen in Mike Cook’s, of Goldsmiths, University of London, game
designer artificial intelligence, Angelina. Angelina is put up against human game designers in a
competition called Game Jam where the goal is to create a video game in a short period of time.
“Eventually Angelina will enter a game jam with an idea that surprises people. It won’t be
because I gave it better templates, it’ll be because I gave it more freedom,’ he says” (Heavan).
This freedom might not only be what’s needed to advance the development of artificial
intelligence but also the key to creating the first true artificial intelligence.
With how complex an artificial intelligence program will be the quickest way to create
one may be to exploit the freedom we give them. We can allow them to evolve on their own and
essentially have the first artificial intelligence create itself.
“Most modern AI systems are too complex to program by hand. One alternative is to allow the
systems to evolve themselves. In this approach, an iterative process tries out variations of the
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program in a virtual environment, and chooses the variations that are most successful and make
the best decisions, using trial and error” (Norvig).
Here humans would take more of an observer role. We would simply give it different scenarios
and study what it does. We could even possibly find ways to create an artificial intelligence
more quickly than before.
Though we can develop many functions of an artificial intelligence without too much
direct involvement from humans there are areas where humans will need to involve themselves
heavily in. This can be seen in: “Hal, what they term a “child machine,” was created January 1,
2000, based on a learning algorithm. Just as a human acquires language through trial and error,
Hal is gradually developing language through the algorithms” (“Artificial intelligence”).
Yet without realizing it we have already made great strides towards the creation of the
first artificial intelligence. Despite how basic they seem we can consider some computer
programs as an basic artificial intelligence to some degree. This can be seen with Angelina and
how it makes video games for Game Jam. “Angelina starts by identifying a key noun in the
phrase and using that to search an online database for associated words and images. In this
[Game Jam], it looked up associations for the word ‘one” (Heavan).
With technology advancing as fast as it is it seems like only a matter of time until
artificial intelligence comes along. They can beat a world chess champion and keep track of your
schedule better than any person can. And with this the question of: “Could an AI outdo
humans?” (Heavan) comes to mind.
Well despite how basic these computer programs can seem they are already outdoing
humans in many areas. Once again this is well displayed by the game designing robot Angelina.
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“I can safely say that the game created by Angelina has better gameplay and graphics than
several other entries,’ says Alan Zucconi, a game developer and researcher at Imperial College
London who also took part” (Heavan). Though this is only a single example it shows us an
example of what may be the future. A future where it’s an artificial intelligence doing your job
for you.
But there are still many challenges ahead before the creation of the first artificial
intelligence. The technical challenge of creating the first computer with human level intelligence
is the most obvious challenge. But what about people’s reaction to an artificial intelligence?
With how popular artificial intelligences that try to destroy humanity are in movies and video
games we can’t be sure how well the creation of an artificial intelligence will be taken. There
could be a complete outcry against the creation of intelligent machines and computer programs.
This raises the essential question. “Will the creation o[f]… [A]I ever be possible? That is a
controversial issue. Some experts believe it will. One of the leading advocates of this view is Ray
Kurzweil, who is sure that it will happen by 2029” (Artificial intelligence). Though they are
speculations it seems like we will see the creation of the first artificial intelligence within our
lifetime. These artificial intelligence will most likely not replace humans for the most part in the
early years of existence but they will make life easier for people.
So for now we are stuck with Siri and other computer programs. Though they are fast and
powerful they are limited to narrow fields or are confused by human input. But with artificial
intelligence this won’t be the case. They can find a newspaper article that you’re looking for,
plan out your day and carry a conversation with you while you get ready for the day. And then
assist you with tasks the rest of the day flawlessly. While these incredibly intelligent computer
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programs are not around today and are only an idea, they could become reality and common
place well within our lifetime.
Woks Cited
Heaven, Douglas. “Game on, Computer”. New Scientist 221 Issue 2950 (2014): 18-18. Print. 7
July. 2015
Norvig, Peter. “Artificial Intelligence”. New Scientist 216.2889 (2012): 1-8. Web. 7 July 2015
Gale Group. “Artificial Intelligence”. Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale
(2010).Web. 7 July 2015