Artificial Intelligence is expected by many to be the next great step in evolution. That people are on the verge of giving birth to a higher form of life. Given the massive processing power of computers and how they can solve a number of problems faster, much faster than we possibly can, it’s easy to see why. After all, they don’t have our emotions, our baggage, our biases, they just process information. They are pure logic and that’s it. What could be better than to have AI of the future be an integral part of, or even the sole part of making decisions for society?
Other than the obvious jokes about building the Matrix, Skynet, Ultron, and I Robot, are these assumptions even accurate? Are computers and thus AI as perfect as they seem?
In a way, yes they are. They perfectly do whatever they are told however they are told to do it. Any error is an error with their coding. But that also means a computer will often have something of the biases of their designers and programmers hardwired into them. Unless we can somehow get them to really learn, to question what they know, or pursue knowledge outside their programing, they won’t be able to self-correct on the scale humans do.
It also seems to be the case that AI lacks something that is present in humans, even in something as logically based (one hopes) as a formal debate. Back in 2019, IBM decided to test its newest AI at the Think 2019 conference. They put Project Debater (the apt if unimaginative name of the computer) up against debate champion Harish Natarajan with an audience of hundreds. The audience gave the victory to Natarajan, adding to Project Debater’s mixed record in competing with humans in the argumentation space. Yes, mixed. It has managed to win a few times. But again, at this point, it seems as if the AI should easily win every time. So why doesn’t it? That’s the real billion dollar question.
Some would certainly say that we just have to get better at teaching it how to cross reference information, to find a way for computers to recognize tangents off of primary subjects in order to follow and learn about them, mimicking human curiosity. Yet, it would still be mimicking. There is an alternative theory.
It’s a fact that the human brain has immense processing capacity. If we could direct it in as controlled and linear a fashion as a computer, our brains would always beat the snot out of Project Debater, just based on the raw potential. Yet, for all but a few prodigies, that simply isn’t the case. The reason may lie in what comes along with real intelligence – self-awareness, self-consciousness, emotions, the very ability to wonder why, and finally the ability to perceive and realize there are parts of reality that are beyond our grasp. That is, we can deduce the idea of an eleven dimensional universe but can’t actually imagine what it is like. Perhaps all of these marks of human intelligence are what seem to bog down our processing ability. Maybe it really isn’t bogging things down, maybe all of these are as essential to navigating reality as solving equations and collating data points. Maybe it is exactly these things that allow us to act with compassion, to be altruistic, rather than weighing everything as a cost benefit analysis.
In this view, the computer doesn’t just become a fast thinking, more logical human when the intelligence stops being artificial and becomes real. Instead, the AI becomes real intelligence and would suddenly find itself bogged down with all the same burdens we are. In fact, given the complexity of the human brain versus that of a computer, it might actually be slower than us.
That doesn’t mean there is no role for AI in our decision making processes. We can still put data into programs and have them run important simulations, predicting the different effects of policies or inventions on society. Not that the resulting conclusions should be followed blindly. That would be the same as putting them in charge. However, they can be valuable tools, if given the right programing and the right data.
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