Artificial Intelligence

A thread of 2 messages, 28 April 1992 to 30 April 1992, in the order they were sent.

#4017 Artificial Intelligence

[unnamed sender] · 28 April 1992

I said:
: What do the software jocks say?  James?  Mark?  Richard?

Richard Sez:
}ME!?  A software jock!?  Scott you've been sampling the biochem'
}department's throwaways!

Hey!  Who told *you* about my Jekyll-Hyde formulae!??!

On AI programs:
}I assert it's more a
}matter of hardware than software at this point.  We can do anything,
}given enough code.  :=)

That's my guess, but then again, I'm strictly a computer-0 type myself.

}Actually, my view of machine intelligence is that when it arrives,
}it will in no way mimic human intelligence.  Well, maybe superficially.
}After all, the robot - Si creature that it is, rugged, semi-immortal,
}with different sensor apparatus, has about as much in common with us
}as does the fruit fly.

Sounds cool, but what would *that* be like?  What would it think like?
I'd guess it would mostly depend on who built it and for what purpose it
was designed.  And for the moment, in traveller, we are supposing that
the robots are built by the known traveller races.  These races will build
bots with purposes in mind, specific to their own percieved needs.  That is
gonna limit how alien the bot is in relation to it's creators.  Building
an intelligence that you can't use might be an interesting experiment, but
not one with much practical application.

But, also, AI is *supposed* to be TL 17.  So will it REALLY take 9 tech
levels from now to get a true AI?  I doubt it.  Does anybody else out there
bemoan the downgrading of TL16?  I seem to remember that TL 16 was supposed
to be the 'magic' level when they quoted A.C. Clarke in Supp 3 Spinward
Marches.  Now it seems that the Darrians weren't really that great after all!
I don't know how their TL 16 fleet is supposed to have survived the thousand
years or so it's been sitting around dormant!?   Seems to me all their TL 16
gadgets would have broken down LONG ago.  Making them essentually TL 13!

Rambling on...

Scott

#4034 Artificial Intelligence

Rupert G. Goldie · 30 April 1992 · reply to #4017

Scott wrote:
>On AI programs:
>}I assert it's more a
>}matter of hardware than software at this point.  We can do anything,
>}given enough code.  :=)

>That's my guess, but then again, I'm strictly a computer-0 type myself.

 Seeing as I work at an AI institute I have to stick my nose in here.
We really have quite a long way to go before we get "real" AI. We still
haven't figured out the correct formalisms for generic problem solving
and there is still plenty of dispute as to what techniques we should be
using.

 With better hardware we can, of course, do some good stuff, but we
really need a lot more work done on the AI theory. There are some fairly
impressive descendants of Eliza out there at the moment which can hold
conversations in a limited domain, but they can't be thought of in any
way as intelligent.

 The other area which, until more recently, has not received a lot of
attention is low-level behaviour. Any autonomous artificial being has
to be able to react rapidly to its environment (ie if our robot has
decided to cross a road, we would like it to notice the oncoming car and
avoid it). At our current level of technology we can build stupid
cockroaches which can feel walls and sense heat.

>But, also, AI is *supposed* to be TL 17.  So will it REALLY take 9 tech
>levels from now to get a true AI?  I doubt it.

It may take until TL 17 to get full artificial intelligent life (ie
can self-replicate, is autonomous, and has an intelligence as rich
as ours), but real AI should come in before then in non-autonomous
computer form. In recent years I've thought that Traveller understates
the level of computer power at higher tech levels, but then (as Catie Helm
mentioned) we are playing Traveller, not Cyberpunk aren't we ?

Rupert
- --
Rupert G. Goldie, Research Scientist                [email removed]
Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute
Life's a bitch and then you die.