Artificial Intelligence is easily one of the most popular buzzwords this oear, even sparking heated debates between prominent tech moguls, Musk and Zuckerburg, on the future of AI.
However, one major oversight persists – true Artificial Intelligence does not exist and will not exist for at least another decade, according to BoldIQ CEO, Roei Ganzarski.
Instead, he suggests, tech companies claiming to do ‘AI’ actually only provide an augmented Intelligence.
While many companies claim to provide “AI-driven” solutions, in reality they’re leveraging machine learning techniques at best, developing what Ganzarski refers to as augmented Intelligence.
In fact – IBM (who arguably created the first AI tech with Watson) agrees with this definition, and believes today’s technologies are more data-driven than ever but aren’t yet advanced enough to think for themselves – which is how true AI is defined.
While HBO’s Westworld gives us a glimpse at a future where human-like, self-thinking androids are the norm, people will have to wait several years where the technology goes from interpreting predetermined scenarios based on a library of data to an intelligent bot that formulates its own ideas based on morals/rationale – essentially ‘thinking’ for itself.
In an interview with Information Age, Ganzarski’s discussed how he thinks this gap from augmented intelligence to artificial intelligence will be bridged, how long that will take and what the future of AI holds.
There’s currently a lot of hype around artificial intelligence in nearly every industry, but you claim it doesn’t yet exist. If we aren’t experiencing true AI, what are we seeing instead?
Artificial intelligence is easily one of the most popular buzzwords this year, but in my opinion, it does not yet exist and will not exist for some time.
Instead, tech companies claiming to do ‘AI’ are actually providing what I would define as augmented intelligence – very sophisticated, fast decision processing or decision supporting software based on real-time scenarios.
However, even these split-second, computer-driven decisions are based off of highly evolved algorithms that were programmed into the software by a human.
These “AI-driven” solutions are indeed leveraging advanced technologies, but I would contend that this is not yet true artificial intelligence.
To understand my opinion, we should look at how AI is defined.
In the simplest of language, AI is a computer (software, robot, call it whatever you will) that has the ability to do things only a human can do, and use the same level of logic and reasoning that a human would. This last part is the key.
Some could argue robots who just do what humans do already exist like the robots can build cars or even do advanced computations, and might even perform well, if not better, faster, and more consistent than humans.
However, they currently do this following a set of orders, not using reasoning or logic of their own making. Even those using machine learning tell the computer what to make of data that is compiled and how to “learn”.
In fact, as far back as the 1956 Dartmouth Artificial Intelligence (AI) Conference , J. McCarthy defined the study of the new field of AI as the following: The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.
An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves.
