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Artificial Intelligence (A.I)
What is A.I and what impact does it have on humanity?
Cathal McCurry – B00574380
What is Artificial Intelligence or better known as A.I? According to the Oxford
Dictionary, artificial intelligence is “The theory and development of computer systems
able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual
perception, speech recognition, decision making, and translation between
languages.”
A.I (Artificial Intelligence) was first introduced to me when I was playing a strategy
based computer game on my fathers PC. I always wondered as to how the computer
would know how and when to respond to my attacks and even counter them
without me knowing what my next move was going to be. This form of A.I is what
got me interested and I have had a growing interest ever since.
What A.I can actually do for us both excites and repulses us, will it be a leap forward
in the way we live and how we live or will it just cause anarchy and hell?
Artificial Intelligence can be broken down into 3 stages. The first one being Artificial
Narrow Intelligence or Weak A.I. This kind of A.I uses big data and complex
algorithms. These algorithms are tailored to a specific task such as those on
Facebook (facial recognition). This is also the kind of A.I that you can find on a chess
game on your computer at home.
The best example of Weak A.I is Siri, which can be found in the new iPhones by
Apple. Although it seems Siri is very smart and some people think even an advanced
form of A.I, which to a certain degree, it is, but it is not self-aware and it does not
have any real intelligence. It works by picking up data from a cloud giving it to you in
the most human way possible, through speech.
In Forbes Magazine (2011), Ted Greenwals who is most well known for his blogs on
today’s technology stated “The iPhone/Siri marriage represents the arrival of Hybrid
A.I, combining several narrow A.I techniques plus access to a massive data cloud.”
This kind of A.I would not pass the Turing Test, which we will explore later. The
reason it would not pass the Turing Test is because it is a weak A.I and has predefined operations which it must work in and sometimes it always doesn’t work the
way you want it.
A.I researcher Ben Goertzel on his blog stated that Siri is “VERY narrow & brittle”
which can be seen when you ask Siri a question, which wouldn’t be in its “predefined” searches. For example, asking Siri whether or not going out with your new
friend Mike is a good idea or not.
You can also find this type of Weak A.I in everyday life. Our lives, infrastructure and
financial markets are very dependent on Artificial Narrow Intelligence due to how
widespread the A.I has become over the past number of years. Not only is this type
of A.I more common in use but also the younger generation are understanding and
learning the process that goes behind creating Weak A.I. From Weak A.I we move
onto the next stage of Artificial Intelligence, Strong A.I.
Artificial General Intelligence (Strong A.I) is a (hypothetical) level of A.I where it can
think just as well as we can, although this sounds crazy some scientists believe we
will be in the age of Strong A.I in about 30 years. Some find it exciting and some find
it scary when they think about what Strong A.I could potentially do. The strong
difference between Weak A.I and Strong A.I is very immediate and is believed to be
the closest we can get to a machine having human intelligence. It is easier to build a
machine that can read and complete very complex calculus than it is to build a
machine that can pass alt at a dinner table or a machine that can go up a flight of
stairs, anyone that has any experience with any form of A.I will tell you the same
thing.
There have been a number of attempts to try and get Weak A.I at a strong level but
the research and development continues.
Some scientists believe that Strong A.I will never be possible while others believe
that if you are under the age of 35 then there is a chance you will see the beginning
of the Strong A.I era.
So what can Strong A.I do? A Strong A.I will learn and upgrade itself without any
instructions given. The machine will be given a sort of foundation block, which it will
then develop on. The machine would work on as a trial and error learner and have
an infinite capacity to be able to learn, acquire, remember and use those skills it has
learned. It would have what many professional A.I researchers call “Recursive SelfImprovement”. This is important for a number of reasons but the main one is to
allow the machine to achieve greater and greater intellect, far greater than that of
any living human. Because of recursive self-improvement the A.I will not stall once it
reaches a human level and as it becomes smarter it will eventually become starter
than its creator. When this happens it is referred to as a “Singularity” which is where
we encounter the third and final stage of Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Super
/Hyper Intelligence.
Artificial Super/Hyper Intelligence (Hyper-Intelligent A.I) is (theoretically speaking)
any A.I that exceeds human levels of intelligence even by the slightest. In sating that,
any self-improving intelligent life form is going to improve a lot very fast from the
speed it develops at and any A.I that reaches this level would be years ahead of us.
At this point, “turning it off” wouldn’t be as simple. If the machines develop into this
final stage of A.I and become more intelligent than any excisting human, will the scifi movies I watched in my childhood come true? Will the robots eventually
overthrow the human race? Will they extinct us? Use us as slaves? Or will they be
more peacekeeping and use their intelligence to cure cancer and protect the world
that gave it birth? Only time will tell.
So how can we tell the difference between Weak A.I and Strong A.I? The first
groundbreaking test on A.I was first reveled in a paper written by Alan Turing called
“Computing Machinery & Intelligence” where he put forward the question “Can
Machines Think?”
To best explain how the Turing Test works I have created a pictorial example.
The test works like this, a human subject is brought into a room with two other
rooms directly opposite from the human subject. One of the rooms contains another
human subject. The other contains a computer (A.I).
The first human subject is trying to figure out which is the other human subject and
which is the computer A.I by asking them both a series of questions.
To make things harder the computer is trying to be as indistinguishable from a
human as possible.
If the human subject cannot tell the difference between which is which then we may
be in the presence of an advanced A.I.
As good as the Turing Test is, it is not a perfect test of robot intelligence as some
people have managed to create programs, which have tricked the test. Another
thing the Turing test is unable to take in is it doesn’t account for non-human
intelligence. With that in mind just because a computer passes the Turing Test
doesn’t mean it’s ahead of human advancements.
Many people depend on A.I to run their business and infrastructure and it has done
so very well, with new developments in trying to improve A.I, to make it more
efficient. We have managed to create A.I, which is so efficient in doing what it does
that we have no need for a physical human being for the task in hand.
A good example to show that the development in A.I is improving is from your local
supermarket. Before A.I was widely used, traditionally there would up to 30
checkout clerks in large supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco which cost the
companies a lot of money to pay everyone’s wages. Today when you go into your
local supermarket those physical human beings that once sat in a long row of desks
are now being replaced by self-checkout machines, which does everything, but at a
much faster rate. This is a lot more cost effective and efficient for companies to opt
for these machines.
Automation is where different control systems are used to control operating
equipment like machinery and factory machines with minimal to no human aid. A
good example of this is a car factory. The large arms and machinery used in these
factories is sometimes overwhelming when seeing it for the first time. Although they
build the cars to the right dimensions without error, they are still machines, they
cannot learn and they cannot do what they want unless we change the information
they were given. They are incredibly narrow despite them being so accurate at what
they do and that is because they work within a certain frame/field and cannot
recognize anything other than the commands it was given. They are blind to the
world and are only cost effective in certain situations. As you can see from the
images the difference is quite astonishing and note how there isn’t a single human
being in the factory image. Just machines.
Image of old car factory circa 1970.
Image of current age car factory.
Now that we have an example of what automation is and what it does. What if there
was an automation that could think and learn, to a certain degree?
Meet Baxter
Baxter, unlike the machines above, which require machine operators, technicians
and millions of pounds worth of hardware. Baxter can learn what you want him to
do just by watching you do it. He is not pre-programmed to do one specific job/task
but is capable of carrying out weak tasks within his reach. This is the best example I
have seen of a machine-tending robot, which can learn based on visuals. Baxter is
what A.I researchers call a general purpose robot and Baxter is a solid step forward
for creating more advanced robots that will be able to carry out more advanced
tasks.
I feel like the advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence is amazing but also
alarming. I mean its amazing that there are people from all around the world coming
together to create this enhanced form of life and doing their best to try and bring
the dreams of sci-fi and robot lovers around the world to life and to one day have a
robot of their own. The alarming part is when you dive into the darker ends of things
and start thinking about whether or not it’s a good idea. I wouldn’t mind if I had a
robot that could go to the shop, pick up my favorite snacks, pay for them and make
its way home. Who wouldn’t want that? But its when the robot itself is self-aware is
where the caution is. Does it know its being treated bad? Will it rebel?
I really cannot wait to hear and see more about the advancements of A.I but for now
I am happy with what we have and happy there are no robots around plotting how
they are going to overthrow the world.
References:
Alan Turings Paper on “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/TuringArticle.html
Minsky on “Step Forward Artificial Intelligence” http://worrydream.com/refs/Minsky%20%20Steps%20Toward%20Artificial%20Intelligence.pdf
Tim Urban on “The A.I Revolution” - http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificialintelligence-revolution-1.html
Information on Artificial General Intelligence (Strong A.I) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence
Information on Artificial Super Intelligence (Hyper Intel. A.I) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence
Information on Artificial Narrow Intelligence (Weak A.I) –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_AI
Jeremy Howard, TED on “The wonderful and terrifying implications of computers
than can learn” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4kyRyKyOpo
Baxter Application YouTube Video, the Robot at work –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFKRSvM45GI