Artificial Intelligence: the dawn of a new age?

Technology is advancing faster than ever before. It took roughly ten thousand years to go from writing to printing press, but only five hundred more to get email. Now it seems we are at the dawn of a new age, the age of AI. Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers. We we do not program the machine to solve a problem, but we program it to learn how to solve many problems. The machine is hence capable to learn by itself. AI has been in the collective imaginary way before it was implemented in our lives. In “Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey”, astronauts are sent to Jupiter on the Discovery One, which travels under the total supervision of the supercomputer HAL9000. HAL9000 is presented as a super smart artificial intelligence capable of interacting with humans and reproducing emotions.

Hal9000 from “2001 : A space odissey”

HAL9000 is now real and its name is CASE

CASE is an Artificial Intelligence conceived by Pete Bonasso, researcher in artificial intelligence. It purpose is to plan and manage activities for a future planetary base. Actually it’s just a prototype, but already capable of giving answers based on the information in its possess:

“For example, the user could say, “Send the rover to the vehicle bay,” and CASE would respond, “There are two rovers. Rover1 is charging a battery. Shall I send Rover2?” Alas, if you say, “Open the pod bay doors, CASE” . Unlike HAL, it will respond, “Certainly, Dave” ”

CASE is the result of the collaboration with NASA, but many other companies are making huge strides in the development of a AI. To understand how the learning process works, Mark Sagar, CEO of Soul Machines, began when most life begins, a baby. He modeled the AI after his own daughter, giving birth to Baby X.

Baby X, the Artificial Intelligence behind a toddler

Soul Machine’s Baby X

Baby X is a lifelike simulation of a toddler. The machine can see through a camera and listen through a microphone. Baby X uses a type of Artificial Intelligence called “object recognition” that gives it the ability to identify objects and tell the difference between them.  Its movements are driven by virtual muscles, which in turn are driven by a virtual brain. There are neural networks, which are virtual, much simpler versions of the human brain, driving the muscle. Baby X’s brain is nowhere near as complex as a real brain and instead of neurons, it’s got nodes.  What Mark is working on is known as “affective computer”: Baby X interprets and simulates human emotion. The idea behind the whole project is  that as AI continues to become mainstream, it needs to really understand humans. Cristopher Nolan had the same thoughts about it when designing the Artificial Intelligence TARS, for the movie Interstellar:

Artificial Intelligence TARS, from the movie “Interstellar”

The relationship we may will have with Artificial Intelligence is perfectly described by the dialogue between Cooper and TARS:

Cooper:
Hey TARS, what’s your honesty parameter?

TARS:
90 percent.

Cooper:
90 percent?

TARS:
Absolute honesty isn’t always the most diplomatic nor the safest form of communication with emotional beings.

Cooper:
Okay, 90 percent it is.

Artificial Intelligence ethics is a very active field since the line between “helpful” and “catastrophic” is incredibly fine. Firstly, because smart machines could overcome us, but also because the we still don’t know the possible effects of empathizing with machines. In a next article, we will explore the dangers and benefits of living in a world in which you could no longer distinguish a person from a machine.

References:

• Pete Bonasso,”CASE: A HAL 9000 for 2021”, S C I E N C E R O B O T I C S   |  F O C U S