Wednesday, March 4, 2015

AI is not coming any time soon. Let's look at why. A look at babies



This is from last weeks Wall Street Journal: 
Robots are becoming more of a reality in everyday life, and movies have started to overhaul their depiction of them. They’re gentler, friendlier and often better-looking. 
Yet the question remains: Could the smart machines we are inventing rise up against us and obliterate humanity? Or could they become loyal, loving companions and world-saving tools? Two new movies, "Chappie" (March 6) and "Ex Machina" (April 10) will explore artificial intelligence in the coming weeks, with more projects to follow.
 Really? Ok folks. Why AI is harder than you think in easy to understand terms. Watch this video:


That baby can look and imitate. More importantly the baby wants to do that. It "feels the music." Computers may not be able to do that ever. Moreover, they wouldn't want to.

Watch this one:


Two babies that are smarter than any machine will be. They are trying to communicate. They don’t know how yet. But they are practicing and will be learning how over time. They feel that they are communicating. Computers? Not so much.

Watch this one:


It is in Russian and yet we understand it quiet well. Why? Because we are humans and it is a human (and funny) situation. It is the beginning of a child learning how to talk to her dad. The baby is copying what she has seen. She can do that because she is intelligent.  She can teach herself by copying and trying. No computer can do that. Probably no computer will ever do that. Still we should be very afraid of computers taking over and killing us.

One more:


This is learning in action. An intelligent computer would have to start the way a baby starts, have conversations like this one, and learn from its many experiences, like this child will. You can’t just shove all the knowledge in the world into a computer. It is acquisition and learning and thinking and feeling that matters. No knowing facts.

I have worked on AI all my life. I would like to build computers that make our lives easier. That is pretty much what everyone who works in AI would like to do. But movies and people who know nothing about AI keep selling a very different and silly message.

When a computer starts imitating you, then you can start worrying.

5 comments:

  1. Can I start worrying now based on this? http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v518/n7540/full/nature14236.html

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  2. sorry; you can't; computers have always been able to play and win games; when they come up with original thoughts and empathize with emotions you can start worrying

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  3. Create an artificial mind that mimics ours is difficult due to our carbon-based condition, which determines the structure and dynamics of mental processes. In any case I see a danger in the economic field due to automation of jobs.

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