Download Giese Justin Giese Professor Sansing English 1001 1 August 2015

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Justin Giese
Professor Sansing
English 1001
1 August 2015
AI’s Could Be Here Soon: Cortana Could Be Improving Our Lives Tomorrow
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 was not an issue? This will be something an artificial intelligence can
do with ease. It can also go beyond this and even carry a conversation with you. This idea has
existed for decades and has been met with many obstacles over the years. But it will not be much
longer before this is not just an idea but something real.
What is an Artificial Intelligence?
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.
The Technical Issues with Creating Artificial Intelligence
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
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because: “although 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-yearold 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: “…no 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 his article Peter Norvig discusses some of the issues with creating AI’s. Peter
Norvig states that “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 is 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
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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
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 Moral Issues with Creating Artificial Intelligence
“Does this unit have a soul?”(Mass Effect). This is the question posed by Legion, a
member of a race of machines with artificial intelligence called the Geth from the Mass Effect
trilogy. Questions similar to this are ones that could be asked by AI’s in the near future. With
AI’s having full awareness of their surroundings and themselves concepts of morality and ethics
come into play. We would have to ask ourselves how we would treat these fully aware machines.
Would they be treated as second class compared to humans? Or would we treat these AI’s as
equals?
This concept of morals and ethics would also apply to how humans are viewed compared
to AI’s. In his article Graham Mackintosh asks “Is it ethical to develop AI, when it clearly
threatens to displace people from their jobs?”(Mackintosh). With how powerful and efficient an
AI will be they will be able to do many jobs better than the human originally hired to do that job
and could very well force many people out of their jobs. With every company trying to save
money in some way this could be their answer. They could possibly replace 50 office workers
with one AI and cut down on costs drastically. This implication will obviously scare many
people that this could possibly effect and these people could push for a lower use of AI’s.
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The concept of ownership and knowledge will also be a moral and ethical question
brought about by the introduction of AI’s. Many AI’s will learn their skills from humans.
Graham Mackintosh gives us the scenario of
“Mr. Wood is an expert geological surveyor, and is employed by a large oil company. He
analyzes rock samples and uses his extensive knowledge to decide if oil is in the area. Who
actually owns his expertise? Mr. Wood thinks that he does, considering that he has spent years
developing it and, after all, it is in his head. His manager, however, feels the company has a right
to the expertise, since Mr. Wood has acquired much of it while on the corporate
payroll.”(Mackintosh)
This scenario gives us an idea of what could possibly happen when AI’s are introduced. The
company could then sell Mr. Wood’s knowledge saying that it is their knowledge. If Mr. Wood’s
ever did leave the company, other companies might not hire him. They would already have his
knowledge and therefore would not need his expertise.
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 not 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 of… AI 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
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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.
Keys to creating Artificial Intelligence
The creation the first artificial intelligence will need the support of many people in order
for it to be completed. As Russel Stuart states in his article Robotics: Ethics of Artificial
Intelligence “Experts need to become the messengers. Through social media, researchers have a
public platform that they should use to drive a balanced discussion. We can talk about the latest
developments and limitations, provide the big picture and demystify the technology.”(Stuart).
With the spreading of information people instead of being fearful of AI’s they will provide the
human race great benefits. This spread of information will also get more people interested in the
projects trying to develop AI’s. Having more people interested and involved means that we will
be even closer to creating the first artificial intelligence.
The creation of the first artificial intelligence will not be a solely human effort though. It
will 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). This example shows that despite how incredibly smart and
powerful AI’s will be they will still need assistance. They will need humans to help them
understand the world around them. Whether it is something we see simple such as language or
something as complicated as
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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 will not be
because I gave it better templates, it’ll be because I gave it more freedom,’ he says” (Heavan).
This freedom will be one of the essential keys to developing the first artificial intelligence. The
freedom will also allow the AI to develop at a faster rate meaning that the first artificial
intelligence will be here in a short time.
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 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.
Current Examples of Intelligent Machines
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,
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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”). This is
yet another example of the continued need there will be for human involvement even with the
development of AI’s. Just as a child needs a parent to teach them about the world an AI will need
a human to teach them about the world.
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 a basic artificial intelligence to some degree. This can be seen with Angelina and
how it makes video games for Game Jam. In his article discussing Angelina and the future of
AI’s Douglas Heaven states “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). While this may seem to be a very simple it is a
huge step in the right direction. For now it is a single key noun. But it will be a key phrase and
eventually it will be able to fully understand and digest the prompt that Angelina has been given
and create an even better game than it already can.
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. While in many fields an AI could outdo humans there are
fields where AI’s would not be able to compete with humans. Technical fields that requires
someone to go out to a location and diagnose a problem is an area where AI’s will not be as
proficient as humans. There will also be a new job market for people to help maintain these new
AI’s.
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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.
“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 is an artificial intelligence doing your job
for you.
The Possible Uses for Artificial Intelligence
While the ability and uses of modern intelligent computer programs is limited to narrow
and specific fields that will not be the case for an AI. AI’s will be able to learn in fields that they
were not originally programmed into. This means that AI’s can be integrated in almost any field.
In his article Lee Spector states “Whenever and wherever such integration occurs it may take a
variety of forms. For example, future developers might use representations and algorithms
developed in in mainstream AI as the ingredient in the primordial ooze that is sampled and
recombined by evolution.”(Spector). This means that as AI’s are integrated into more fields they
will evolve and become even more proficient at what they do.
They Will Be Here Soon
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 will not be the case. They can find a newspaper article that you are 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. Despite all of the complications and
roadblocks in the research and development of Artificial intelligence we are making great strides
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towards the first true artificial intelligence. But while these incredibly intelligent computer
programs are not around today and are only an idea, they could become reality and common
place well within our lifetime.
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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
Mackintosh, Graham. “Artificial Intelligence a Vital Moral Problem”. Factivia. 29 June 1987.
Web. 8 July 2015.
Russell, Stuart. "Robotics: Ethics of artificial intelligence". Nature (London) (00280836),521 (7553), p. 415. 28 May 2015. Web. 10 July 2015.
Spector, Lee. “Evolution of Artificial Intelligence”. ScienceDirect. 7 November 2006. Web. 10
July 2015
“Mass Effect 3”. Electronic Arts. 6 March 2012. Video Game.
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