Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence, by claiming to be able to recreate the capabilities of the human mind, is both a challenge and an inspiration for philosophy. Are there limits to how intelligent machines can be? Is there an essential difference between human intelligence and artificial intelligence? Can a machine have a mind and consciousness?
Artificial Intelligence is a common topic in both science fiction and projections about the future of technology and society. The existence of an artificial intelligence that rivals human intelligence raises difficult ethical issues, and the potential power of the technology inspires both hopes and fears.
In fiction, Artificial Intelligence has appeared fulfilling many roles, including a servant, R2D2 in Star Wars, a law enforcer, K.I.T.T. in “Knight Rider”, a comrade, Lt. Commander Data in Star Trek; The Next Generation, a conqueror/overlord , The Matrix, a dictator, With Folded Hands, an assassin in the Terminator, a sentient race, Battlestar Galactica/Transformers, an extension to human abilities, Ghost in the Shell and the savior of the human race, R. Daneel Olivaw in the Asimov's Robot Series.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein considers a key issue in the ethics of artificial intelligence: if a machine can be created that has intelligence, could it also feel? If it can feel, does it have the same rights as a human? The idea also appears in modern science fiction, including the films I Robot, Blade Runner and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, in which humanoid machines have the ability to feel human emotions. This issue, now known as "robot rights", is currently being considered, for example, by California's Institute for the Future although many critics believe that the discussion is premature.
Andrew Kennedy, in his musing on the evolution of the human personality, considered that artificial intelligences or 'new minds' are likely to have severe personality disorders, and identifies four particular types that are likely to arise: the autistic, the collector, the ecstatic, and the victim. He suggests that they will need humans because of our superior understanding of personality and the role of the unconscious.
Martin Ford and others argue that specialized artificial intelligence applications, robotics and other forms of automation will ultimately result in significant unemployment as machines begin to match and exceed the capability of workers to perform most routine and repetitive jobs. Evidence to support this contention may be found in the fact that real wages for new college graduates have been flat or even declining since 2000.
Joseph Weizenbaum wrote that AI applications can not, by definition, successfully simulate genuine human empathy and that the use of AI technology in fields of customer service or psychotherapy is deeply misguided. Weizenbaum was also bothered that AI researchers and some philosophers were willing to view the human mind as nothing more than a computer program (a position now known as computationalism). To Weizenbaum these points suggest that AI research devalues human life.
Many futurists believe that artificial intelligence will ultimately transcend the limits of progress. Ray Kurzweil calculates desktop computers will have the same processing power as human brains by the year 2029. He also predicts that by 2045 artificial intelligence will reach a point where it is able to improve itself at a rate that far exceeds anything conceivable in the past, known as technological singularity.
Robot designers have predicted that humans and machines will merge in the future into cyborgs that are more capable and powerful than either.
Pamela McCorduck writes that all these scenarios are expressions of the ancient human desire to, as she calls it, "forge the gods".
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