HW 1: Artificial Life and Intelligence in 2030 Response

Artificial intelligence has only become, and will continue to be, more and more prevalent in everyday life since its inception. From beating the worlds best chess player to the emergence of self-driven cars, artificial intelligence has also become much more advanced. Near the beginning of Artificial Life and Intelligence in 2030 the paper states that the most commonly used benchmark for measuring the success of artificial intelligence has been how it compares to human intelligence. Artificial intelligence in its current form has progressed beyond this benchmark and its ability to work through complex calculations to make decisions should now be measured by how different it is than the human brain at these tasks.

For example, according to the paper artificial intelligence is driving research forward faster than ever because of its ability to work through large data sets, and draw conclusions from them, that human minds alone could not. This means that problems are being solved in a much different way. As artificial intelligence advances problems will be solved less by trial based analysis and more by robust theories produced by artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence operates especially differently than the human mind in situations where stress or emotion may cause a human to make an illogical decision. The most prevalent example of this difference infiltrating peoples everyday lives comes in the form of self driving cars. While a human about to experience a car crash may not instinctively make the decision that keeps them safest, an artificially intelligent car would.

Artificial intelligence also operates differently than the human mind when it comes to matters of policy and public health. While artificial intelligence can make the most efficient decision when it comes to funding programs, policy makers will likely still disagree with the conclusion reached using artificial intelligence. Yes, artificial intelligence can suggest the best, most fair option for everyone, but its still on people themselves to actually choose a course of action; and people regularly choose incorrectly.

In line with the papers original statement that advanced artificial intelligence is measured in relation to its similarity to human intelligence, the paper also states that interactive robots will become commonplace in peoples homes. While artificial intelligence will likely become more ingrained into peoples homes, its difficult to believe that highly interactive robots will become the norm. When Apple and Google released their interactive assistants, they were met with initial excitement, but little practical use. In most situations, its simply either more comfortable or efficient to use the phone without speaking to it. Unless interactions with robot assistants can become nearly indiscernible from human interaction, it seems unlikely that they will become any more widely used in homes than they are on peoples cell phones.

While artificial intelligence is capable of learning, like humans, its decision making processes have become so logical, efficient and inhuman that it is no longer reasonable to compare the success of artificial intelligence to that of the human mind.
