We, Robot and I
The whole issue of AI, Artificial Intelligence, Strong Artificial Intelligence, and its
possible emotional relationship to humans seems to be gathering steam. A recent
BBC news article http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36387734
has provided some great new insights into just what is going on today in the
field. A lot of different opinions have begun to surface. If you choose to look
into this report please follow the various links, especially the one that talks
about the 15 important landmarks in the field since 1943.
Those who don’t read Sci-Fi or have not watched Star
Trek, The Next Generation, may have
missed out on a lot of this 70 year odyssey. This long running TV series
starring Patrick Stewart dealt with very serious scientific topics every few
episodes. It all began with Alan Turing and his cohorts in 1943. They knew full
well that literally anything was possible via the process of computing given
the right machinery. Included in that understanding were ‘Black Box’ programs,
programs that were self-teaching and self-evolving. Such programs have already
been put to use. The curious thing about such programs is that the programmers
who write them don’t know how they work or what is really inside them. The idea
that computers can only do what they are programmed to do is simply not true.
People are now seriously thinking about such things
as: Should robots be given the vote? Could one love a robot? Does one have the
right to switch off a robot? Is that murder? Ask a serious computer game player how he or she feels about the characters. With VR, virtual reality, now here and available at a reasonable price, the line between the external world and the virtual world is becoming blurred. So too is the line between the natural creature and the artificial creature.
I have many friends who believe these questions and
ideas are the height of silliness, preposterous in the extreme, and are
unwilling to even talk about them. However, how about the following: your
dog—where did he come from? How do you feel about him? Occasionally we do have
to ‘switch’ them off, and it is a very traumatic and highly emotional
experience. I have a friend who fruitlessly spent $5000 he could ill afford to
cure his dog of cancer. The dog may be made of flesh and bone just like us but
he is just as surely made by us from wolves as robots are made from metal,
plastic, and silicon. We have never been confronted with the voting question
for dogs for the simple reason that the dogs have never brought up the subject,
and probably won’t, given their nature. But the same may not be true of
sufficiently intelligent robots. And oh, by the way, who said that robots have
to be made of metal and silicon?
Not to belabor the relationship between humans and
non-humans too much but I must mention elephants. We all know that we did not
modify them in some way or other for our convenience and use but it turns out
that their intelligence has been a blessing for us and a mixed blessing for
them. My wife and I met a very charming elephant and his companion in Thailand
in the 90s. We were taken for a long ride in the jungle and through the river.
The animal and his companion, Jumba and Mumba, were introduced to each other as
very young children. They grew up together and are inseparable. Each day the
elephant and his human companion spend their six to eight hours together
working, eating, bathing, and playing. At age forty or so the elephant is
retired to a life of ease but his lifelong companion will stay with him to the
end.
Another elephant at that same compound near Ching
Mai makes his or her living painting pictures. The pictures are quite good—most
depict elephant themes—and they sell for quite high prices. This animal was not
taught—it had a natural talent—and is not instructed in any way.
The movie, Ex
Machina, is a powerful look at this whole question. This simple Indy film
won an academy award this year (2016). I have watched it five times and find
something new in it each time. It is basically a dramatization of Eliezer Yudkowsky’s
sandbox experiment which sought to determine if powerful AI could be confined
until made safe. Spoiler alert: It could not!
