Course Overview

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Course Overview

• What is AI?
• What are the Major Challenges?
• What are the Main Techniques?
• Where are we failing, and why?
• Step back and look at the Science
• Step back and look at the History of AI
• What are the Major Schools of Thought?
• What of the Future?

Part IIntroduce you to whats happening in
Artificial Intelligence
Part IIGive you an appreciation for the big
picture ? Why it is a grand challenge
2
Course Overview

• What is AI?
• What are the Major Challenges?
• What are the Main Techniques?
• Where are we failing, and why?
• Step back and look at the Science
• Step back and look at the History of AI
• What are the Major Schools of Thought?
• What of the Future?

?Done
Part IIGive you an appreciation for the big
picture
?Done
3
Course Overview

• What is AI?
• What are the Major Challenges?
• What are the Main Techniques?
• Where are we failing, and why?
• Step back and look at the Science
• Step back and look at the History of AI
• What are the Major Schools of Thought?
• What of the Future?

• Big Brother Scenario? Human Technical Ruling
  Class
• Rise of the machines?
• Singularity?
• Transhumanism?
• Next step of evolution?
• Rights for Robots?
• Exit of humanity?

4

• It is very difficult to make an accurate
  prediction, especially about the future.

Niels Bohr (Physicist)

• Main sources of predictions
• AI Academics
• Science Fiction Writers
• Often correct
• 1945 geostationary satellites as
  telecommunications relays

5

• By 2050, our lives will be populated with all
  kinds of intelligent robots.

Rodney Brooks (MIT AI lab)

• Possibly true
• Lives already full of computers and AI
• Robot technology maturing

6

• BBC interview with Rodney Brooks and Ray Kurzweil

7

• BBC interview with Rodney Brooks and Ray Kurzweil
• Interviewer
• Will our hyper-intelligent coffee makers in 2050
  suddenly decide to kill us like HAL in 2001? Or
  will humans be made redundant by a legion of
  intelligent machines?

8

• BBC interview with Rodney Brooks and Ray Kurzweil
• Interviewer
• Will our hyper-intelligent coffee makers in 2050
  suddenly decide to kill us like HAL in 2001? Or
  will humans be made redundant by a legion of
  intelligent machines?
• Response
• No. We will not wake up one day to find our lives
  populated with all manner of artificially
  intelligent devices

9

• BBC interview with Rodney Brooks and Ray Kurzweil
• Interviewer
• Will our hyper-intelligent coffee makers in 2050
  suddenly decide to kill us like HAL in 2001? Or
  will humans be made redundant by a legion of
  intelligent machines?
• Response
• No. We will not wake up one day to find our lives
  populated with all manner of artificially
  intelligent devices
• Despite the rapid advance of technology, the
  advent of strong AI will be a gradual process.

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Big Brother Scenario

• Big Brother
• a state which will control the whole life of its
  citizens
• Human technical ruling class
• Credible? Wealth gap in US widens in past 50
  years
• Wealth gap between rich and poor countries
  increases
• Internet increases ability of rich to extract
  wealth from poor
• Sources of value can easily be connected
  (increasing value for them) and disconnected
  (cutting the out of loop)
• Education, technology more important than ever
  for value creation
• But extremely unevenly distributed
• Big brother scenario ruling class may control
  population through AI technology

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Big Brother Scenario

• Privacy Invasions by Biometrics and ICT Implants
• used for personal identification
• everybody can be recognized and identified
  everywhere
• Scanned on entry to shops/public places
• Payment of cash may disappear
• Identify dissent attempts at organised uprising
• Currently easy to monitor communications phone
  and internet
• But many man hours needed to analyse recordings
• AI could step in
• Already does for keywords
• Data mining could identify troublemakers early
• Analyse what you are reading
• Social networking sites give yet more sinister
  opportunities

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Autonomous technology is a danger

• By 2020
• Today, via loyalty cards shops computers predict
  your purchase and order
• Soon routine insurance claims/loans will be
  assessed entirely using AI
• Intelligent agents cut out direct human input
• key activities such as surveillance, security,
  and tracking
• No humans need to be involved
• technology will generate dangers not recognised
• until it is impossible to reverse them
• on a "J" curve of continued acceleration of
  change
• Compiled reactions from the 742 respondents42
  agreed54 disagreed4 did not respond
• The 2006 Pew Internet American Life/Elon
  University Predictions Survey

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The Matrix Scenario

• AI technology able to replace humans at work
• Massive unemployment?
• People gradually spend more and more time in
  Virtual Worlds
• Eventually forget about real world
• Example World of Warcraft has over 9M
  subscribers
• More than the population of many countries
• June 2005 child died due to neglect by her World
  of Warcraft-addicted parents in Korea
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vwjjvW8v96dc

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Rise of the machines?

• In the future envisaged by the movies, technology
  is out to destroy us. But could it really happen?
• The only reason to fear technology is because it
  enables people to do bad things to each other ...
  but that's happened throughout history. It's
  just that the means have arguably become more
  sophisticated.
• Matthew Kirkcaldie

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Rise of the machines?

• (fiction) Skynet is a computer-based defense
  system
• Placed in control of all U.S. Military's weaponry
• Remove possibility of human error
• Skynet became self-aware
• (there exist a number of sci-fi stories on a
  similar theme)
• Credible?

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Rise of the machines - credible?

• Much AI research is funded by military
• USS Vincennes was put down to human error
• What if it had been computer controlled?
• As AI improves tendency to give it more control
• Especially in time-critical situations
• machines in control of military hardware seems
  credible
• Machines losing the plot?
• Humans sometimes do after millions of years of
  evolution
• Maybe even more likely for machines
• But machines unexpectedly becoming
  intelligent/sentient probably unlikely

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Singularity

• The technological singularity
• Hypothesized creation of smarter-than-human
  entities
• Machine can keep augmenting their own mental
  abilities
• Seed AI
• The first ultraintelligent machine is the last
  invention that man need ever make Irving Good
• Rapidly accelerate technological progress
• Human beings no longer capable of participating
• What does "smarter-than-human" really mean?
• We don't know because we're not that smart
• What happens after the Singularity?
• Nobody knows
• our model of the future breaks down
• Credible? Some would say ability to predict
  improves

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Transhumanism

• Defined in 1957 by Aldous Huxleys brother Julian
  Huxley
• man remaining man, but transcending himself, by
  realizing new possibilities of and for his human
  nature
• The use of new sciences and technologies
• to enhance human mental and physical abilities
  and aptitudes
• ameliorate undesirable and unnecessary aspects
• stupidity, suffering, disease, aging and
  involuntary death.
• Technologies
• Genetic engineering
• Implants, robotic prostheses
• Nanotechnology
• Drugs
• Possibly uploading personality to a
  non-biological substrate
• http//www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/1
  1/militarys-new-exoskeleton.html

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Transhumanism already happening

• 2006 first bionic arm attached to female amputee
• Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago
• Arm controlled by thoughts
• Signals from nerves from stump of the lost arm
  rewired into the recipients chest

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Transhumanist Opponents

• The first victim of transhumanism might be
  equality.
• The U.S. Declaration of Independence says that
  all men are created equal
• If we start transforming ourselves into
  something superior, what rights will these
  enhanced creatures claim, and what rights will
  they possess when compared to those left behind?
  If some move ahead, can anyone afford not to
  follow?
• Francis Fukuyama (Johns Hopkins School of
  Advanced International Studies)

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Next Step of Evolution?

• Evolution hardly stops at human
• Next step could be by human design rather than
  random
• Evolution of humanity into a posthuman life-form
• Combining human and artificial parts
• or Transhumanist genetic engineering
• Could lead to different races
• Those who stay human
• Those who accept/can afford modification
• Alternatively humanity may be replaced by
  artificial intelligence
• Will they keep humans as pets?
• Or in zoos?
• Or on some reservations?

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Next step of evolution

• We rely more and more on machine intelligence
• Lose our ability to survive independently
• Eventually, world will be dominated by companies
  that are controlled entirely by artificial
  intelligence.
• Anyone wishing to switch off the machines would
  effectively be committing suicide
• Source Independent Newspapers UK Limited

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Rights for Robots

• Robots could one day demand the same citizen's
  rights as humans,
• According to a study by the UK Office of Science
  and Innovation's Horizon Scanning Centre.

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Rights for Robots

• Robots develop to the point where they can
• Behave intelligently
• Reproduce
• Improve themselves
• Understand emotion, empathise, feel emotion
• Robots would have certain responsibilities
• Care for humans (e.g. elderly)
• Compulsory military service
• Contribute to economy, pay taxes
• Society should give rights to new citizens
• Human rights such as not to be killed, tortured
  or abused
• Voting, expressing opinion, protesting
• Participation in political institutions
• nondiscrimination

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Difficult Questions

• If robots are truly intelligent is it fair to
  relegate them to a life of menial chores?
• If intelligent robots have rights then
• is it fair to create disabled robots who have
  less intelligence, in order to use them for
  menial chores?
• Brave new world?
• Where is the dividing line between a creature
  qualifying for rights and one not qualifying?

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How Soon Until Robots Take Over?

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vYMcL-_TrKps
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vSp-CW04XD7Y
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7784509.stm

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A.I. RESEARCH