In Alan Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” he discusses the idea of computers, current and future, and their capabilities. At the time, he spoke of computer’s with limited storage and in the imitation game, where computers were to have conversations with an interrogator whom would figure out if the conversation they were having was with a computer or a human. An interesting point he brings up is how the computer must think and act like a human but yet it does things even better than an average human could, for example, quick math, and chess. He speaks of a computer which will be able to add storage to called “infinitive capacity computers” and will be able to imitate humans so well that the interrogators won’t have more than “70 percent chance of making the right identification after five minutes of questioning.”
He then proceeds to discuss the objections to his points that a machine can think. Some that we found interesting is the objection that God only providing thinking to humans only because they have a soul. Though there are complications to this argument regarding animals and women being seen as soulless, thus making them none thinking beings. Second, the consequences of what machines could do if they could think, which he argues that if humans are superior above all then we shouldn’t worry about machines. Third, it discusses that a machine can not provoke or create pieces that will provoke emotions and thought on its own. Though Turing argues that that the imitation game contradicts this statement, computer’s can provide answers that are personal and can provoke emotion such as “ ...By a winter's day, one means a typical winter's day, rather than a special one like Christmas.”
“The Computer and the Brain” by Ray Kurzweil discussed computer and the people behind the computers we have today. Our group discussed the history we found interesting.
Charles Babbage's Analytic Engine used the idea of the Jacquard loom (which used punched cards to create patterns), as a way to store memory. Sadly, Charles did not have the technology to create his computer and it was lost in time. The great thing that came out of it was the creation of software programming. Lovelace was the first to think about how we can create programs, and the first to start thinking about AI, and started writing programs for the Analytic Engine. She also created the idea of table checking, which is basically debugging in your head. The von Neumann came along and created a form of what we use today. He basically talked about the structure of the brain and how similar it is to a machine/computer. Obviously, he didn't have the correct structure of the brain, but for his time it was pretty miraculous. He outlines Von Neumann discusses neurons and how their output is digital and neuron’s cell body is analog, which is the model software and hardware are built based on. Another thing von Neumann believed was that the brain had the capacity to remember every single detail or our lives. So basically, von Neumann thinks the brain works with memory as 1's and 0's, whereas our brain actually works with recognition. The writer gives a good example of how recognizer recognizes the structure of the letter A, and how at a higher level they recognize the word Apple, and at a comparable level it can recognize the object, and on a higher conceptual level, it can recognize the term "that was funny". When we recall an experience, we know that it's not just a video in our head. It's impossible to remember every single detail because when we revisit the memory, we tend to fabricate some of the events that happened. Also, von Neumann correctly defines the brains powers about how our neurons are able to process information at the same time. It's impossible for one neuron to work, that's why all work is spread throughout all our neurons. The expansion of information is going to grow super fast with our rapid progression with technology. Before brains were a lot more intelligent than computers, however, supercomputers have changed this.
We also compared and contrasted the two texts. Summarizing that Ray Kurzweil is focusing on understanding human intelligence to understand AI and looks more into the human brain itself. While Turing's approach is the imitation test which is used to determine whether or not AI is achieved by a human level of intelligence.
No comments:
Post a Comment