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Is “artificial intelligence” (AI) really an artificially stupid topic? Is there even such a thing as “artificial” intelligence, or are we just playing with words?
The answers are not as straightforward as one might at first glance assume. Indeed, assumptions may well determine the outcome of a tautology that would have us chasing our own tales of intelligence.
Join us for a real intelligence gathering, together with our in-studio guest Professor Christopher Essex of Western University’s Department of Applied Mathematics. It’s a discussion about the pitfalls and promises of what has come to be called “artificial intelligence,” and why the discussion itself has as many pitfalls as its subject.
The circular debate between “real” and “artificial” intelligence may simply be caused by assuming that the latter refers to some form of “artificial human.” It cannot. “Intelligence,” however defined, is an unreal concept when used in the attempt to distinguish between man and machine.
Perhaps it is the emergence of humanity’s capacity to perceive reality’s truths, not merely the capacity to possess intelligence that lies at the heart of the confusion. To err (choosing the wrong values) is human; to error (arriving at the wrong conclusion) is merely mechanical.
What is primary is not “intelligence,” but the human qualities of self-interest, goals, and desires. In recognizing that reality is the only means to these ends, only humans can claim any ‘smarts’ at all. And that sounds about Just Right to us.
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