Artificial Intelligence: Building Smarter Machines
human oversight We can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets human stock traders out-inventing human researchers out-manipulating human leaders and developing weapons we cannot even understand wrote Stephen Hawking with other concerned scientists in 2014 If on the other hand a superintelligence could be programmed to share human goals the result could help humanity Such a machine might be able to devise remedies for air and water pollution climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels and life-threatening illnesses No such promise or peril looms over the development of weak artificial intelligence a phenomenon that is already at work in our homes cars and workplaces In contrast to artificial general intelligence weak AI focuses on specific tasks Weak AI is currently transforming such diverse fields as transportation medicine and banking Apple’s digital virtual assistant Siri operates through weak AI So do unmanned land rovers that explore and photograph the surface of Mars Other examples include apps and programs that conduct Internet searches identify faces and objects in photographs and translate text and spoken words into foreign languages Self-driving cars refrigerators that regulate temperature and monitor food quality and smart houses that track household lighting temperature fire safety and home security are also examples of weak artificial intelligence Weak AI has already displaced large numbers of laborers in the workforce In modern factories robots machines that automatically perform complicated and repetitive tasks handle much of the assembly work work previously performed by humans Automatic teller machines online banking and bill paying and scanning software do much of the work that bank clerks and tellers used to do Self-checkout stands at supermarkets have replaced many human cashiers The replacement of human workers by machines will only accelerate as technology improves Many analysts fear that millions of workers will be left jobless as fewer and fewer tasks will require humans to perform them 8 Artificial Intelligence
INTELLIGENCE TESTS Can machines think British computer pioneer and mathematician Alan Turing right was already considering this question as early as 1950 He devised what came to be called the Turing test to determine a machine’s intelligence The procedure is simple A person in isolation poses questions and receives answers from both another human being and a computer If the questioner can’t determine which answers come from the human and which come from the computer a judge can assume that the machine is intelligent Turing believed that by the year 2000 with advances in AI computers would fool judges at least 30 percent of the time To pass the Turing test an artificial intelligence must give answers that lead the questioner to believe that he or she is interacting with a human British computer pioneer and mathematician Alan Turing devised the test in 1950 Some researchers say that the Turing test has serious fl aws Even though a computer may engage in a seemingly normal conversation they argue we can’t assume that it is actually thinking They say that other tests are better able to assess computer intelligence One such test is the Winograd Schema Challenge Devised by Hector Levesque of the University of Toronto in 2011 the test presents questions that require reasoning skills A sample question might be what is meant by the sentence The trophy would not fi t into the brown suitcase because it was too small A person would have no trouble explaining that the suitcase was too small for the trophy But a computer might have trouble deciphering whether the pronoun it refers to the trophy or the suitcase So more than language analysis is needed to make the determination Common sense is also required In other tests computers watch programs on television or YouTube and then answer questions about them For instance a computer might view a news program and then be asked why does the congressperson think we need a new law After watching a sitcom the computer might have to explain why a particular joke was funny Experts say that these kinds of tests are much better than the Turing test in assessing a computer’s ability to think reason and analyze information Dawn of a New Age 9
COMPUTERS WITH LEGS AND WINGS For years artificial intelligence has been quietly developing behind the scenes But recent advances in weak AI and robotics are bringing it more and more into the public eye To some the term robots conjures up images of shiny metal figures lumbering stiffly around a room The reality is far more diverse Robots come in all shapes sizes and materials Some look like humans or animals while others have no resemblance to living things Their styles range from the cute to the awesome to the seriously menacing It isn’t hard to guess what the robot BigDog developed by the company Boston Dynamics now owned by Google is made to resemble With four legs a computer to control it sensors to explore its environment and an engine to power it BigDog was designed to carry heavy equipment for In a rescue drill undertaken by the Russian Emergencies Ministry in 2016 a drone drops a life vest to a struggling swimmer Rescue agencies use drones and robots in a variety of emergency situations especially when conditions might be perilous for human responders 10 Artificial Intelligence
soldiers Weighing a hefty 240 pounds 109 kilograms and standing 3 feet 0 9 meters high BigDog can run 4 miles 6 4 kilometers per hour climb stairs carry 340-pound 154 kg loads and push forward through water mud and snow In contrast to BigDog some robots are tiny and delicate Patterned after insects they have wings and can fly The robots function like drones remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicles They can infiltrate the rubble of collapsed buildings using sensors to identify carbon dioxide from a survivor’s breath or the warmth generated by a living body Instantly the robots can radio the person’s location to rescue squads Designers imagine swarms of these insect-like robots released into the ruins of a city after a major earthquake They would save workers precious minutes or hours in the race to free survivors from a wreckage In the performance of their carefully defined duties BigDog and the swarms of flying rescue robots might almost seem to be aware of what they are doing But they are not Complicated algorithms sets of mathematical rules programmed into their software guide their actions ANDROID DICK Even more impressive than running and flying robots are robots that are programmed to converse with humans For example Android Dick An android is a robot that takes a human form US sculptor and roboticist David Hanson created the robot to look like the famous US science fiction writer Philip K Dick who died in 1982 Hanson uploaded Dick’s novels stories and conversations with reporters and other writers into the robot’s software Supplied with this data the robot easily replied to questions the real Dick had answered when he was alive By analyzing combinations of sounds and words and matching them with meanings from its database the robot could frame responses to other questions as well Some of its statements were so convincing that in 2013 a reporter from the TV series Nova asked Android Dick the most basic question of all Was it really able to think Dawn of a New Age 11
