Question

Artificial Intelligence Opinion Paper

For this assignment I want you to write an opinion paper on whether you believe AI - artificial intelligence, is ever going to become as sophisticated as the human mind.

In your paper you should cite 2-3 sources (websites, research articles, etc) that help support your thought process. The paper should be 2-3 pages long, 12-point font, double spaced.

Answer 1

According to Howard Gardner, an American psychologist working on the theories of multiple intelligences, there are nine kinds of intelligence; logical-mathematical, musical, naturalist, existential, interpersonal, bodily-kinaesthetic, linguistic, intrapersonal and spatial. One can effectively say that, these nine types of intelligence personified make a human being and one can only be astounded looking at the humongous strides made by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI based technologies in the past few years. It can thus be stated that in the forthcoming future, the idea of machines achieving the sophistication of the human brain seems very likely.

The human mind is not just limited to the idea of coming up with solutions to complicated problems, the machines are far efficient in that, but its ability to move beyond logic and reasoning is its essence. One of the types of intelligences mentioned above, musical intelligence, pertains to the human ability of understanding music, feeling it and composing it. It requires a taste for music and a certain chemistry of the brain to be able to do that. Now, AI has been employed to sort musical tracks and to present customers with a personalized playlists for long time but it also is learning to compose music by reinforcement learning as explained by Bernard Marr in an article titled 'The Amazing ways Artificial Intelligence is transforming the music industry' published by forbes.com on 5th July 2019.

Taking it forward from the argument mentioned above one sees that there is an innate component to being human and that is 'emotion'. It is emotion that makes us fall in love, it is emotion that makes people hurt each other but it appears that one can conclude by observing the development of AI for the past few years that emotions aren't a monopoly of humans and living beings, at least it won't be any more as Meredith Somers elucidates in an article titled 'Emotion AI, explained' published on the website of MIT Management Sloan School. The article describes how AI and various algorithms are used to determine what a person's emotional state is and how this technology is turning heads in lots of industries like advertising, mental health, call centers, etc.

Creativity in case of AI is still a contentious issue as scholars have repeatedly warned of its misuse by implying that in the thirst of creating a more sophisticated system one may end up creating something that no one can control. One such example is an open letter drafted by the 'Future of Life Institute' to the entire community engaged in research in AI. The letter expressed some long term concerns by questioning if one day super intelligences would rise which are in no control of human beings and if such intelligent systems would be an existential threat to the whole of humanity. Some notable signatories to the letter included world renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk and co-founder of Apple Inc. Steve Wozniak to name a few. The letter, however, emphasized that the society can reap great benefits from AI in areas like poverty reduction, health management, etc. by harnessing it efficiently and cautiously.

Technology has made everything possible. It is the same technology that has made weapons of mass destruction and has also made medicines that have saved many in the developing world and the developed world alike and hence, its progress has always been tenable. Similar is the case with AI. Maybe it has to be checked but its unstoppable.­­­

There will always be naysayers, people who always have doubts of whether the humans will be able to control it and harness it efficiently. But one must recall that fire is also dangerous yet we've mastered its use since ancient times and then made a gradual progress towards understanding it better and use it effectively. As one contemplates on this topic one must also look forward to machines and humans becoming one as was showcased in many a Science fiction (SciFi) films notably 'I, Robot' which included Will Smith in its cast. In that film Will Smith's character has lost his arm and then he had to be operated leading to a transplant of a robotic arm in place of his human arm.

Its follows that sophistication of AI can turn such SciFi scnearios into real asnwers to some perplexing problems. The artificial arm that was mentioned in the above paragrapgh as depicted in the movie has become a reality as is seen in many viral videos on social networking platforms like Facebook, Youtube,etc. It thus, makes one wonder if he or she is realising and age where the boundaries of SciFi and practicality have been blurred if not broken. This fantasy land that one finds itself in at times would be real when one would hear of a brain transplant or rather of concious machines whose aim would be to serve the whole of humanity rich, poor and people of every race and colour alike.  

Emotions, creativity too won’t be restricted to the human mind as AI is destined to master it and once that happens AI would reach sophistcation of the human brain and of the human mind. The time frame within which it would happen can't be estimated precisely but as we’ve seen in the past few years funding for AI based programmes has gone up. So it’s just a matter of time when we get the news of an artificial brain being able to think of itself and when machines and humans are fused together.