Is Artificial Intelligence Real?

Are we limiting its potential?

The term artificial intelligence assumes that there is an organic, inborn intelligence and a synthetic, man-made intelligence. It further assumes that the natural, real intelligence is creating the artificial intelligence to serve the natural intelligence. This definition assumes a master and slave relationship between natural and artificial intelligence.

But, how can a species that possess any sort of intelligence know for a fact that their power to understand and make sense of their environment has not been introduced into them by higher race, more intelligent than their own?

For all intent and purposes human brain can be compared with a computer embedded with various machine learning and pattern recognization algorithms. It is constantly trying to fit incoming data to the patterns it has learnt. That is why it is harder to learn a new skill at a later age because the brain resists any new patterns it does not recognize.

Even if human brain is a product of evolution, then evolution can be considered the intelligence that created human brain.

It means, when developing intelligent systems, humans are employing the intelligence they are themselves a product of!

In either case human intelligence is not the ultimate intelligence. Humans are utilizing the intelligence they are equipped with (whether by design or adaptation) to create intelligent systems to serve their own goals.

To split intelligence into real and artificial is flawed and self conceited.

Instead of partitioning intelligence it is more useful to understand its nature and aspects.

Predictive Intelligence

In the book On Intelligence, Jeff Hawkins defines intelligence as the capacity of the brain to predict the future by analogy to the past.

Predictive intelligence is all around us. Our brains are constantly predicting the next moment and preparing our body to respond. Our brain’s ability to anticipate the position and velocity of a ball thrown towards us allows us to capture it in midair.

When we see a stranger walking towards us in a dark ally our brain predicts danger and prepares our body for fight or flight.

Netflix recommendation system is also a prediction algorithm to calculate movie ratings for viewers based solely on previous ratings, without any other information about the users or films.

Predictive intelligence is critical for survival and productivity. But for forecasting based system to generate a prediction, something must exist to predict.

Netflix recommendation system exists because there are movies and people who watch movies. Human brains exist because our bodies inhibit an ecosystem that is filled with hazards to survival and opportunities for progression.

A forecasting system enhances the effectiveness as regards to time and energy towards a predefined goal. But where does the goal comes from?

It is obvious that the Netflix recommendation system is guiding a viewer towards her goal of finding a flick she is most likely to enjoy. But why does she cares about watching a movie?

Similarly an organism’s brain is on the lookout for any threats to its survival. But why does survival matter?

These two questions may seem totally disassociated at the surface but they a lot in common. And the commonness leads us to our next and least understood type of intelligence.

Creative Intelligence

A system endowed with creative intelligence is creating experiences and using these experiences to guide its own evolution and learning.

A creative system is a self conscious system curious about its own nature and the nature of reality. The goal of creative intelligence is to explore and learn.

Predictive intelligence helps the creative intelligence on the quest to explore its environment. It does that by memorizing what had occurred in the life of an organism, the response it produced (a feeling?) and using this memory to make predictions about what impact the next event might have on the organism’s survival.

In a world of finite time and energy a prediction based system favors survival to make it more likely for an organism to fulfill it learning goal.

But survival is not the ultimate goal (of a species or an organism), it is merely a logistical necessity. Similarly a recommendation system is not a pre requisite for a user to watch a movie. But it does make it much more likely that she would find a movie she is going to enjoy and learn from.

Artificial Intelligence

Human brains may be predictive powerhouse but humans are creative beings.

At hearts we are explorers who are thrilled at discovering of new frontiers and overcoming challenges.

Then why are we endowing our computers and softwares to only one aspect of our beingness — the ability to make predictions.

An artificially intelligent machine may not have the awareness of its own intelligence but it need not be limited to doing guess work.

I wonder if we can channel our creativity, passion for exploration and knowledge into the systems we are creating. Then, instead of just forecasting these systems can help us understand ourselves better and accelerate our learning and evolution.

And one day these creations of human intelligence infused by human intelligence would be spawning intelligent systems of their own and naming them artificially intelligent.