When I was at University I studied AI for a couple of years along with computer science. Twenty years later our progress is… well… limited.
Yes it’s faster. The brute force element is working. But it’s not actually much smarter. We still haven’t been able to crack language translation. Which is sort of a minimal requirement for any serious AI.
He’s also right that really no one really has a business model for a singularity. And they have no business model for self-thinking machines.
The fact that the rebuttal in the article talks about thinks like SIRI and Watson kind of proves the point. Those are not autonomous intelligences of any sort. They’re large searchable databases.
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Bruce Sterling Thinks Artificial Intelligence Has Jumped the Shark
Bruce Sterling wrote influential works like Schismatrix and Islands in the Net, plus he practically invented cyberpunk (with all due respect, of course, to William Gibson and Rudy Rucker).
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The real power of AI lies not in a thinking machine but in a vast network of intelligent machines being used by millions or billions of people. We are the AI and it is us.
We will have AI as soon as they figure how to use it for internet porn.
No. We will have AI as soon as the cats work out how to use it.
Eoghann…So what I’m gathering from the article and from your comments is that humans will see more and faster automation of tech systems embedded in society but no truly “self aware” machinery. So am I following you correctly?
That is my personal feeling on it yes +Tim Speece.
I don’t think we’ll see self-aware systems coming. Nor do I think we’ll be uploading our brains in the future.
Raw computing power has increased exponentially, but other elements have not.
+Eoghann Irving Are you familiar with the concept of a Super Organism? There are these large termite mounds in (I think) Australia, many feet tall. Thing is, in recent years scientists have stopped thinking of them as mounds and started thinking of them as Super Organisms, a type of organism with no genetic code of its own per se but which is created and maintained by a balance of organisms that cannot vary significantly, i.e. must be homeostatic in relation to other Super Organisms of its kind. The mound is not itself alive, but like a living thing it is “reproduced” by its “cells” (termite, microbes, and other organisms that live within, create, and sustain the thing). In that regard I am convinced that Google is already a “Super Consciousness”… it has no consciousness of its own, but through a billion users and their inputs, interactions, and efforts (active or passive) to build, sustain, and grow the system is like that Australian termite mound. It doesn’t need sentience, because we who build it, maintain it, improve it, or just use it are sentient, and are interacting with the machines and each other on a massive scale.
+Eli Fennell Similar to a colony of coral but with a higher level of collective intelligence.
+Tim Speece Yes! Exactly!
+Eoghann Irving Do you envision a generally positive future for humanity with faster and stronger IT systems helping us make better decisions? Assuming we don’t destroy ourselves through mass starvation…climate change…germ warfare…etc.
I think it’s pretty awesome that you studied AI
It’s an interesting theory +Eli Fennell and reminds me somewhat of the Gaia Hypothesis. There appear to be elements of unconscious or maybe partially conscious self-regulation built into many complex organisms.
Perhaps it’s not as exciting or revolutionary as the traditional _singularity_ but it’s probably more likely.
I think the general trajectory will be positive +Tim Speece. That has been the general pattern for centuries and if nothing else mankind has shown itself to be pretty resilient. We are very adaptive cockroaches. It would take a lot to wipe us out.
I think we have the opportunity for some major genetic and medical breakthroughs. The science isn’t the problem, it’s the social change that will have to come with it.
AI is a fascinating subject +Jack Hardman. Even though I don’t think we’ll ever see a self-aware computer there are so many things it can do.
+Eoghann Irving So will AI progress far enough to be of any tangible use to people?