All about AI

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

The term “AI” is used in different contexts with slightly or widely differing definitions. These definitions also evolve over time. The aim of this post is to outline how AI will be used in the context of the Ethigi project. As this project is a cross between a Computer Science approach and the Philosophy approach, we should start with the definitions in those contexts.

Computer Science perspective

AI is a sub-field of computer science with the goal of enabling “the development of computers that are able to do things normally done by people — in particular, things associated with people acting intelligently.”¹ There are three versions of the overaching goal that also slightly modify the definition:²

1. Build computers that think exactly as humans do
2. Just get the job done without caring if the computation has anything to do with human thought
3. Using human reasoning as a model that can inform and inspire but not as the final target for imitation

The bulk of the AI currently in the industry falls under the 3rd goal. In contrast, the Turing Test arguably falls under the 1st goal as it identifies AI in terms of the ability to mimic human responses.

Philosophy perspective

AI is “the field devoted to building artificial animals (or at least artificial creatures that – in suitable contexts – appear to be animals) and, for many, artificial persons (or at least artificial creatures that – in suitable contexts – appear to be persons).”³

The four possible goals of AI can be characterised as:⁴

	Human-Based	Ideal Rationality
Reasoning-Based	Systems that think like humans	Systems that think rationally
Behavior-Based:	Systems that act like humans	Systems that act rationally

By this definition, the Turing Test falls in the Human & Behaviour quadrant.

Weak AI, Strong AI, Narrow AI, AGI & Superintelligence

AI could be further categorised as either Weak AI or Strong AI.

Weak AI or Narrow AI, focuses on a particular task and it is by far the most commonly encountered form of AI. It falls within goals 2 and 3 in the Computer Science perspective and the Behaviour-based row in the Philosophy perspective. Examples of Weak AI include Apple’s Siri, self-driving cars, spam filters, image recognition and Facebook’s advertising algorithm.⁵

Strong AI or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) can meet or exceed the generalised human cognitive abilities. It can perform any intellectual task that a human could perform without any human intervention. There are no known examples in practice, though there are common examples in fiction such as 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL 9000, Star Trek’s Data and Westworld’s Hosts. There are many experts who doubt if an AGI is possible while others question whether it would be desirable. ⁶

A Superintelligence as a AGI that surpasses the intelligence of the best human minds.

Ethigi is a response to AGIs, so that is the definition of focus for this project.

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References

1. https://www.computerworld.com/article/2906336/what-is-artificial-intelligence.html, retrieved 30/07/2019
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/02/14/the-key-definitions-of-artificial-intelligence-ai-that-explain-its-importance/#74cc07f94f5d, retrieved 30/07/2019
3. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/artificial-intelligence, retrieved 30/07/2019
4. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/artificial-intelligence/#WhatExacAI, retrieved 30/07/2019
5. https://searchenterpriseai.techtarget.com/definition/narrow-AI-weak-AI, retrieved 30/07/2019
6. https://searchenterpriseai.techtarget.com/definition/artificial-general-intelligence-AGI, retrieved 30/07/2019