![\"Will](\"http:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/smart-machine-f.jpg\")
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Society stands at a crossroads of artificial intelligence: We can design computers that sharpen our wits or we can let our machines turn us into ignoramuses. That observation capped a provocative panel\u00a0on Tuesday at Austin\u2019s South By Southwest conference.<\/p>\n
Increasingly intelligent machines \u2014 search engines that yield knowledge on demand, smartphones that understand plain English, computers that proffer medical diagnoses, ad tech that offers to sell you just what you\u2019re looking for \u2014 represent a \u201ctipping point,\u201d said Doug Lenat, a former Stanford and Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who is CEO of Cycorp, a maker of machine reasoning software. \u201cWe could become smarter or dumber \u2013\u00a0much<\/em>\u00a0smarter or\u00a0much<\/em>\u00a0dumber.\u201d<\/p>\n Electronic calculators, Lenat argued during the panel entitled \u201cAI State of the Union,\u201d\u00a0have created generations of students who can perform mathematical tasks very quickly but don\u2019t understand the underlying concepts. Similarly, Google \u201cswaddles\u201d users in a blanket of instant information, relieving them of the burden of independent thought and inquiry. The next wave of artificial intelligence \u2014 loosely defined as a computer\u2019s ability to distinguish between useful and useless information at any given moment \u2014 could propel us irrevocably down that path.<\/p>\n \u201cThis could lead to Idiocracy<\/em>,\u201d Lenat said, referring to the 2006 Hollywood satire about a future in which human intellect has taken a steep dive. The result would be a society \u201cwhere no one has to understand anything about the world, where everything just seems like magic.\u201d<\/p>\n Alternatively, he said, computer scientists could design artificial intelligence \u201cto challenge us the way Aristotle challenged Alexander the Great, to make us smarter, more rational, more human, to understand the world more deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n AI lately has taken a turn from digital smarts based on rules (furry faces with whiskers and triangular ears are cats) toward those based on recognizing patterns (some online pictures have certain similarities, and the word \u201ccat\u201d in the caption may mean they\u2019re cats), the panelists agreed. The latest advance, known as deep learning, is based on decades-old technology that became practical only in recent years, as greater processing power has enabled computers to achieve higher orders of learning and vast accumulations of data on the Internet have given them enough training to draw relevant conclusions.<\/p>\n The shift could be viewed as a transition from left-brain thinking based on logic to right-brain thinking based on intuition. Both modes will be necessary to further advances in AI, yet the brain devotes far more time to intuitive than rational thinking, pointed out Monica Anderson, CEO of Syntience and a specialist in artificial intuition.<\/p>\n \u201cReasoning is the sugar on top of intuitive understanding,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n The key challenge will be getting computers to recognize context, the panelists said. Humans have little problem recognizing biases introduced by politics or limitations due to outdated information, but machines are blind to contexts they haven\u2019t been specifically programmed to recognize.<\/p>\n One answer is to design AI that asks clarifying questions, said Fred Brown, CEO of Next IT Corp, which builds virtual assistant technology. \u201cGeeks want machines that do things without asking,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what makes good AI is good communication with the user.\u201d<\/p>\n wsj<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Society stands at a crossroads of artificial intelligence: We can design computers that sharpen our wits or we can let our machines turn us into ignoramuses. That observation capped a provocative panel\u00a0on Tuesday at Austin\u2019s South By Southwest conference. Increasingly intelligent machines \u2014 search engines that yield knowledge on demand, smartphones that understand plain English, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":37971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[469],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.massarate.ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}