Artifical Intelligence Essay, Research Paper

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence is a highly debatable

topic. You either believe that it may be achieved or think it

can’t, and the middle is a little shady. Artificial Intelligence is

the study to create a machine that can act like a human brain,

including emotions, and consciousness. This speech will

cover the subject of if it can ever be achieved and at what

level. This would be a giant technological step. If it is ever

achieved, everyday activities such as vacuuming, or laundry,

would become automated. The leader in the field of AI is

actually not a business, but MIT’s Artificial Intelligence

Laboratory. It does more ground breaking research in the all

fields of AI, including robotics and neural networks, than any

other facility in the world. First I will describe the different

techniques and fields that fall under AI. The first technique

that is used to create intelligent systems is the top-down

approach. That is when the computer is given a written set of

directions such as “IF that is red, THEN go forward” and it will

go from there according to the program. This technique was

widely used back in the 1950’s when AI was still a mysterious

subject, but it has major flaws. To write complex programs

that take in all their surroundings would take hundreds of

thousands of lines of code, which no one has the time to

write. The newest technique that is being used is bottom-up.

That is the arrangement of data into a complex system where

all information is connected, like a brain, which is why it is

also referred to as a neural network. It is extremely complex

and confusing at some points, so I won’t describe it here, but

you don’t need to understand it to answer the question at

hand. There are also many different fields of study that fall

under AI. The first field that I’ll talk about is robotics. This field

has been prospering in the ’90’s. It is not so much the

engineering for the robots that is causing the standstill in

functionality of these machines, but the computers that control

what they do, which is the problem with all forms of AI right

now. There is also database processing, which works with the

way that a computer sorts and retrieves information. And

intelligent software agents that can tell you when to buy and

sell stock among many other things. But, what this speech

mainly focuses on is the theory behind all this, which has its

own field. There are four categories of viewpoints that one

may have on this topic. “A. All thinking is computation; in

particular, feelings of conscious awareness are evoked

merely by the carrying out of appropriate computations. B.

Awareness is a feature of the brain’s physical action; and

whereas any physical action can be simulated

computationally, computational simulation cannot by itself

evoke awareness. C. Appropriate physical action of the brain

evokes awareness, but that physical action cannot even be

properly simulated computationally. D. Awareness cannot be

explained by physical, computational, or any other scientific

terms.” Penrose 12 All that says is that it all depends if the

brain functions computationally or physically (chemical

reactions) and whether or not you believe that either of those

can be simulated by a machine or biological creation of some

kind. We will be dealing with viewpoint A and D. If you believe

in viewpoint A than you believe that computers can become

“aware” of their surroundings. The word “aware” means that it

can take in its whole surroundings and make judgments and

actions for itself, which a giant leap from where AI is at now. It

really depends on how you view how the brain functions.

Research is being done by neurobiologists to unlock the

secret of how the brain works. It could function by

computation or chemical reactions, no one is really sure. If

you think that it is all done computationally, and that humans

can simulate it in a machine of some sort than you believe in

A. “A is an implication of a highly operational attitude to

science, where, also, the physical world is taken to operate

entirely computational.” Penrose 13. There has been no

evidence that supports or denies this viewpoint because the

secret of how the brain works has not been solved, yet. The

viewpoint D, on the other hand totally rejects the whole idea

that computers, or any machine can achieve any form of

intelligence that may be mistaken for human action. The main

reason for believers in this category is from the work of a

German mathematician named Kurt Goedel. He was a good

friend of Albert Einstein and helped him with his theory of

relativity. He was more into the question of logic. His “Logic

Theorem” is highly complex and impossible to explain in this

speech. It pretty much says that logic is only a biological

process and cannot be simulated using any form of device or

algorithms. Some how he proved this using mathematics. His

work is highly debatable and still only a theory and that is why

the viewpoint A is still a possibility. We will not get into the B

and C viewpoints because they are extremely hazy, and not

very precise. They pretty much say that you believe that the

brain functions computationally and physically, but cannot be

simulated by any machine. Whereas in D you believe the key

to creating “awareness” in a machine will never be reached. I,

myself, believe that A, can and will be achieved. The boom of

technological advances in both the area of AI and

Neurobiology force me to believe in that viewpoint. My

prediction is that it will be achieved by the year 2050. I’m not

sure yet if it is going to be a good thing. Many jobs will be lost

due to automation. Hundreds of thousands of people will

replaced with machines that perform flawless and error free.

And it would be cheaper to buy a machine for $5,000 that can

work for 10 years, than to pay someone $40,000 a year for 10

years, that is just simple math. AI is a very interesting field that

is still in the early stages. There have only been major

advances in that field in the last 10 years and I believe that it

will keep on going like that. Hopefully, when I am old and can’t

function for myself I will have a computer that can do it all for

me.