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> Any new ambiguity here comes from the ambiguity inherent in the word "artificial". Not sure I agree here. Seems to me the ambiguity comes from the word "inte

by cacois 3y ago

> Any new ambiguity here comes from the ambiguity inherent in the word "artificial". Not sure I agree here. Seems to me the ambiguity comes from the word "intelligence". As in, does that if/else clause indicate "intelligence" that's been programmed in. Of course we've created more terms like Artificial General Intelligence[1] to try to clear up the muddy definition of what constitutes intelligence. I think our fundamental challenge as society begins to try to understand what AI is comes down to what "intelligence" is. As you said, we all know what it is, but can't define it easily. If I write some really clever code, is the system running it intelligent? Is some of my intelligence imbued into that system, or does it have some of its own? At what point does a stochastic process approach intelligence - when it has enough data? Does that mean babies aren't born with intelligence, but acquire it as they learn more? So many questions, good questions, necessary questions. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligenc...

nextaccountic 3y ago
> does that if/else clause indicate "intelligence" that's been programmed in Yes, systems built with if/else rules are intelligent, in that they reproduce some heuristic rule that someone had to think about. I think the term "expert system" is kind of appropriate for them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_system Of course they are not too intelligent, but, they are more intelligent than a rock, say. (unless this rock happen to be a chip running some neural network)
- cacois 3y ago
  Agree fully - I've always used the term "expert system" as well, for the same distinction. An expert system operates on rules, created by a more "creatively intelligent" entity. Though when we talk about AI now, we are talking about what the _public_ thinks "intelligence" means. This really muddies the conversation, because these technical distinctions we are making now fall completely flat. I think when you tell random people that we have created "artificial intelligence", they think we mean what I am referring to above as "creative intelligence", not "it executes an if/else rule" intelligent. So as AI becomes a topic in the mainstream, our conversations are likely to be completely misunderstood because of the colloquial meaning of the technical terms we use.

by cacois 3y ago

nextaccountic 3y ago

> does that if/else clause indicate "intelligence" that's been programmed in Yes, systems built with if/else rules are intelligent, in that they reproduce some heuristic rule that someone had to think about. I think the term "expert system" is kind of appropriate for them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_system Of course they are not too intelligent, but, they are more intelligent than a rock, say. (unless this rock happen to be a chip running some neural network)

cacois 3y ago
Agree fully - I've always used the term "expert system" as well, for the same distinction. An expert system operates on rules, created by a more "creatively intelligent" entity. Though when we talk about AI now, we are talking about what the _public_ thinks "intelligence" means. This really muddies the conversation, because these technical distinctions we are making now fall completely flat. I think when you tell random people that we have created "artificial intelligence", they think we mean what I am referring to above as "creative intelligence", not "it executes an if/else rule" intelligent. So as AI becomes a topic in the mainstream, our conversations are likely to be completely misunderstood because of the colloquial meaning of the technical terms we use.