The Artificial Intelligence Debate

Artificial Intelligence started getting evaluated in the form of the Turing Test, or Imitation Game, proposed by Alan Turing. Within the test there are three rooms: one for a human judge, one for the 'artificial intelligent' machine and the other for another human. The judge's purpose is to ask the machine and human questions and based on their answers depict which set of responses corresponds to the human and which set corresponds to the machine. For the machine, the purpose of the game is to answer the judge's questions in a way so that the judge isn't able to distinguish the machine's answers from the human's answers. If the machine is able to trick the judge, it has passed the Turing Test and is deemed as having a degree of artificial intelligence.

Today, weak/soft AI is all around us and comes in the form of GPS systems and Apple's SIRI. Weak Artificial Intelligence is machine learning systems that are designed to complete narrow or selected tasks. Strong Artificial Intelligence systems are designed to perform an abundant amount of human capabilities and even surpass those capabilities all within one machine. Some of these capabilities include learning, decision making and reasoning.

The current debate is on the timeline to which AI can achieve these capabilities and the degree to which they can achieve and surpass human intelligence. Many think the advancement of artificial intelligence will succeed at this in the next decade. This group is often called the Singularitarians. "The Singularitarians’ fundamental tenet is that Moore’s Law—the doubling of digital technology’s bang-for-the-buck every year or two for the last half-century as microchips have gotten faster, cheaper, and more powerful—is no temporary thing: that the exponential increase in inexpensive computer power is bound to keep spiraling upward and onward." (Enthusiastic and Skeptics Debate Artificial Intelligence). Others are skeptical of the power of AI, saying Singularitarians underestimate the power of the human brain, and argue that no computer will surpass total human capabilities at least for the next 15-20-25 years.

The other debate associated with AI concerns the actual value it has to humans. Some think AI may be the end of the human race in general and others believe the intelligence can contribute to solving some of the world's biggest problems like sustainability and poverty. Both the Singularitarians and skeptics fall on both sides of this issue. Here's a video of Stephen Hawking talking about some of the dangers that humans may face with Artificial Intelligence. 

Check out the article talking about the culture behind the leaders of the Artificial Intelligence debate! What do you think of Strong AI? Is singularity coming soon? And what kind of impact will it have on our society/human race? 

Anderson, Kurt. "Enthusiasts and Skeptics Debate Artificial Intelligence." Vanity Fair. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014 http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/11/artificial-intelligence-singularity-theory?mbid=social_retweet 

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