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be called intelligent are to process natural language, be able to learn from the
conversation and remember what had been said, communicate ideas back to the
human and understand common notions, displaying what we call common sense
(Smith). Though the guidelines for the machine to be called intelligent are fairly simple,
the ability to replicate that in a machine is still far from being accomplished even in
modern time.
The Turing Test is still considered the best option of testing a machine to be
intelligent. Just because its considered one of the best options does not mean that it is
without its flaws. One of Alan Turings objections to his own test is that the machine
would need plenty of storage memory in order to replicate a humans abilities. In reality
though the human brains memory storage capacity is massive. According to Paul
Reber, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, said that the humans
brain capacity is around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). For comparison, if
your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be
enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV
running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage. That is a lot of
storage, which modern technology does not have to capability to hold all in one place.
Another objection is from a theological standpoint, on the fact that you could not put a
God given soul into a machine. Many people also state that the machine would have to
be able to make art and music through emotion instead of just replicated what a human
can do. Though the issue with that Alan Turing brings is that in order to know if a
machine can feel human emotion, we would have to be the machine itself.
Since Alan Turings paper in the 1950s the advancement was very slow for AI,
only until the mid 00s. A lot of uses for artificial intelligence in everyday life started to
become more apparent. With the rise of children playing video games and having
complex computers readily available, technology would have to adapt with the new
generation. Many millennials do not know how to read a map, or find information on
their own anymore without the use of technology. With the advancements we have had
in technology the world has moved forward with that. Now we have a GPS in almost
every phone, and we now also have Google which can give us information at the tip of
our fingers. Though those technologies are not particularly AI, they have started to
implement more modern forms of it to assist its development. If you have an iPhone you
have Siri, which you can ask almost anything and it will perform it. In the beginning
though, Siri was not effective. That is because it did not have much to base what people
were saying to it on. So as Siri was used more by people around the world it began to
learn what people meant when they ask it things. Siri began to learn how to distinguish
accents, figure out what certain slang words mean and many other things. Through that
it is now able to do almost anything for any user who uses it. Siri is an example of a very
basic form of artificial intelligence but the thing that makes it an AI is its ability learn.
There has been a bit of a rebuttal on what makes a real AI. In an interview with
Douglas Hofstadter, a cognitive scientist at Indiana University, he states that Watson
the Jeopardy playing machine is not true AI. He says It doesn't understand what it's
reading. In fact, read is the wrong word. It's not reading anything because it's not
comprehending anything. Watson is finding text without having a clue as to what the
text means. In that sense, there's no intelligence there. It's clever, it's impressive, but it's
should definitely trek into AI as a relevant technology but we should always be aware of
what we are creating.
Works Cited
"Applications and Uses of Artificial Intelligence." BBC News. BBC. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
The BBCs article gives some examples of what AI is used for in the modern day
as well as describing how one may work. It is quite reliable because it is straight
from the BBC and it does not contain any bias. It helped to show many uses of AI
in modern technology and how it may work.
Awford, Jenny. "Will YOUR Job Still Exist in 2025? New Report Warns 50 per Cent of
Occupations Will Be Redundant in 11 Years Time." Mail Online. Associated
Newspapers, 8 Nov. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.
This article goes over how in another decade many of our labor jobs may be
replaced by machines. Though it does state that even though machines may take
the current jobs that there will still be no shortage of things that need to be done
by humans. Its objective and focuses on the statistics that it had found. The
article is helpful because job security is something that many people may worry
about when it comes to AI.
This article speaks of how in a recent interview with Stephen Hawking he stated
that artificial intelligence could bring the end of the world. This article does not
have much content but helps me reinforce a point about safety around AI.
Gross, Grant. "The Future of Artificial Intelligence: Computers Will Take Your
Job." PCWorld. 6 Oct. 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
This article goes into depth about how AI systems can take our jobs and what
parts of them specifically. This comes from PCWorld which is a typically trusted
source and there does not seem to be any bias. The article helps me to reinforce
certain things an AI can do in place of a human.
This is a very large report about how AI had come about. It goes into what
defines an AI and the people who helped develop the basic ideas of AI. The
article seems to be based solely on history and facts. I mostly am using it to talk
about Alan Turing and his machine.
Reber, Paul. "What Is the Memory Capacity of the Human Brain?" Scientific American
Global RSS. 1 Apr. 2010. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
This article talks about Google acquiring a very complex and powerful AI system
from a tech startup company. The way the company had programmed the AI was
beyond anything already seen. The article is just an observance of the facts that
have come from the companies. I use this article to show how AI is definitely
evolving to crazy levels.
"UCAR - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research." New NCAR System May
Guide Transoceanic Flights Around Storms and Turbulence. 7 July 2009. Web. 1
Dec. 2014.
This article goes over a new weather team and technology what will help flights
avoid turbulence overseas. The AI helps make the decisions fast about the
weather it finds overseas. I use this to incorporate how AI is advancing in the
future and can take jobs possibly.
Herkewitz, William. "Why Watson and Siri Are Not Real AI." Popular Mechanics. 10
Feb. 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
This article goes over a rebuttal of what is already thought of in the public eye as
AI. The interviewee goes over the fact that until AI machines can think and feel
like humans do, theyre not AI. The article provides a different standpoint than the
norm and helps me to show a different side of things.