You can no longer brush aside subject of artificial intelligence (AI), since you might already be a heavy user of the same routinely through mobile phones, computers, internet search engines, digital calculators and GPS. It is extremely important for you to understand relevance of your own intelligence versus what future gadgets are going to provide or pinch from you.
Researchers, developers and protagonists of AI believe that one day, they would not only replicate human intelligence but exceed it to create super intelligence! You can find applications of AI beyond human calculations and comprehensions in areas like aircraft flight monitoring and control system, unmanned satellites, unmanned military aircrafts like Drone, factory robots and sophisticated medical diagnostic systems.
One of the latest advancements in AI is artificial neural networks (ANN), inspired by the hypothesis that human/animal brain or central nervous system is essentially biological neural networks. ANNs are essentially a family of statistical learning algorithms. We can say that AI is superb combination of computational and cognitive sciences, along with host of sensing devices, massive data processing and storage.
Debate whether AI can beat eventually human intelligence has been raging for decades among scientists, researchers, developers, philosophers and faith leaders with no clear conclusion or direction as yet.
How do you define human intelligence?
If you google “Intelligence”, you would find plethora of information. Read 1st few paras of Wikipedia on “Intelligence”. It talks of at least 11 parameters from logic to problem solving, which constitute intelligence. If you would look at Wikipedia on “Human intelligence”, you would discover that intelligence is directly proportional to birth weight but inversely proportional to sexual frequency! As per Howard Gardner, there are 7 types of intelligences – from linguistic to intrapersonal intelligence!! There is no unanimity of views on definition of intelligence!!!
Now, you can try your bit from the following:
- Is Intelligence your ability to answer a question?
- Is it your capability to comprehend and respond?
- Is it your power to sense dangers and save yourself (or others)?
- Is it your skill to analyze, memorize and recall at will?
- Is it your emotional expression?
Probability is high that you would never get a good definition or end up pumping too many words and versions into a single word “Intelligence”!
Do not be disappointed! Intelligence is nothing but “Our ability to exactly (it implies speed and accuracy) do what we chose to do”!! So, if we are given a question and we chose to answer, then we should be able to answer; if we have a problem, we should be able to find a solution and so forth. If you are able to do it accurately and/or quicker than others, then you are supposed to be more intelligent. Fact is whatever you do in your life is part of “Intelligence” and is borne out of your “Consciousness”! This is also what “Freewill” is all about!!
Barriers and boundaries of AI
Now, key question is – are researchers and developers of AI working towards above definition of human intelligence? Most likely answer is “no”, because you can clearly observe that understanding of human intelligence (HI) has been so far vague. HI is actually linked to what we are able to do in our life time – eat, evolve, indulge, imagine, innovate, sleep, smile, succeed, fail, cry, redeem and regenerate!
If we talk of specific ability, then lot of non-humans would surpass HI. For example, birds from Siberia migrate to exactly same far off places in particular season of the year without any navigation system which humans can never do on their own! Dogs’ smelling sense can catch missing culprits, which no other living being is able to do!!
Eventual run of AI is likely to face following barriers and boundaries:
- Capabilities of AI would be limited by limits of what researchers and developers together can think and program.
They are humans and hence AI would always end below HI. - Some scientists of AI have advanced hypothesis that there is possibility of reaching Singularity situation, which means that AI can refine and improve by itself to a level beyond definition.
Firstly, Singularities spell end of the game, whether it is boom or doom. Nothing exists beyond a Singularity.
Secondly much before possibility of such development, Government authorities would take control because of social, moral and ethical issues. - To match human intelligence, AI would need to simulate all abilities of humans in one body or system, not distributed over several bodies! It is then nothing but a kind of human cloning, which is already banned in most countries.
The most catastrophic thing is to artificially create “Freewill”. Imagine its use and misuse! - History shows that scientific and technological advancements would always be limited by “Regional, religious, political, social and economic biases”. Beyond that would only be in Hollywood or Bollywood fiction movies.
- Last but not the least, if we were to get right grip on human mind and its intelligence, we would drop any thought of matching it artificially!
Great promise and potential of AI are in fields of diagnostics, computing and specific cognitive functions to improve quality of our lives. This is where we also see tremendous progress.
So friends, rejoice; your intelligence would remain insurmountable!
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