What is the importance of AI today?

Bruce Klein, someone involved in the business and theory of modern Artificial General Intelligence, recently forwarded me (and everyone else he could think of) a rough draft of a statement on the importance of AI and accelerating change and requested feedback.  I think this summarizes things pretty well but I think statements like this can always use clarification and lean towards (ironically) generalizations.

“Throughout the past half-century, the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been progressing steadily. As progress continues, it is likely that the problem-solving abilities of AI systems will approach and then surpass the brightest human minds. If so, it is also likely these systems will acquire the ability to improve their own programming without human assistance. The development of such systems should be approached with considerable forethought.

The prospects and implications of powerful machine intelligence has been called “singularity” by analogy to singularities in mathematical physics, particularly black holes. This analogy invokes the concept of the “event horizon” that shields the singularity from outside observation. This point of view is informed by the notion that it is difficult for us to predict what will be done by intellects that exceed our own mental ability.

We consider it plausible that advanced AI systems may arrive in the next few decades, and the policies and precedents we set in the present will have significant influence over what will happen in the future. We think it is time for AI researchers and engineers to work together with society at large to craft a roadmap for the development of this technology to bring about a desirable and beneficial future.”

The myths and realities of AI.

The mythos of Artificial Intelligence has been around for a long time.  For example, Wikipedia’s list of ficional robots and andriods throughout history and the Times Online “Top 50 Movie Robots.”

Generally there is a theme that revolves around our AI creations not having something importantly human or being distinctly different from humans.  For example, the tin man in the Wizard of Oz doesn’t have a heart.  Data from Star Trek: TNG is missing emotions entirely.  The Terminator, depending on it’s programming, is equally emotionless and generally sociopathically bloodthirsty. In a recent modern twist, WALL-E is a friendly robot that while hyperactively politically correct also discovers love and redemption. The most famous exception may be the love affair between androids Deckard and Rachael from Blade Runner. What, you didn’t know Deckard was a replicant?

Why do we paint our visions of Artificial Intelligence this way?  Humans have long felt that we were in fact made in God’s image. At the very least, our consciousness, our feelings, our soul is somewhat untouchable by anything other than God.  Our belief is that it’s impossible to create something equal to or greater than human intelligence beyond having a child. As it’s turned out, it’s been incredibly hard to do just that.  Sure, we can have “narrow” intelligence creations (such as chess games) that are superior to humans in every way.  But as far as “general” intelligence, common sense, and emotions, it’s widely believed that it’s impossible to create a machine with these qualities.

These questions, these myths, and the realities of surrounding Artificial Intelligence today may be some of the most important ones ever asked of our species.  There’s a lot of wonderful philosophy about what it means to be human, the definition of intelligence, and the nature of creation and evolution. Also, there is a lot of danger and risk associated with our tampering with these concepts that merit careful observation and research.  This is the primary focus of many modern scientists in the related fields of AI.  How do we control our future in regards to technology?  How do we ensure a safe happy world for humans?  What if we can create something more intelligent than us?  Are humans really the last step in evolution or… just one step?  Is that a good or bad thing?

Fortunately, smart (geeky) people all over the planet are working on it. Many of them have a lot of hope.  Many have trepidation. There are extremes and there are nutcases. At the very least, the quest for Artificial Intelligence has never been more interesting or dramatic.

Important events and interesting links:

In San Jose, California on October 25th the Singularity Summit 2008 is being held.
This is one of the most modern examples of AI researchers gathering to discuss the future.

March 6-9 in Arlington, VA will feature The Second Conference on Artificial General Intelligence

Interesting people:

Francis Heylighen (papers)
Douglas Hoftsadter
Kevin Kelley
Kwabena Boahen
People M.I.T. AI labs

Modern examples of AI

Gaming. Programming “agents” in games to be more and more unpredictable and “intelligent” is big business.
Searching Software. Google seems to get “smarter” every day.
Linguistics, Facial Recognition, Handwriting Recognition. Machines are getting better and better at “understanding” more and more complex things.
Customer Service.  Businesses value automated Customer Service and pour millions into systems for this and it’s way beyond “press 1 or press 2″ now.
Problem Solving.  Most recently, a massive distributed network was established to process data from the LHC.