Hollywood's obsession
with all things Artificial Intelligence is not only a gross miscalculation of
what the technology is truly capable of, but also how wrong humans are in truly
understanding the phenomenon.
Artificial
Intelligence could be a desperate cry for humans to better communicate with the
bits and zeros that make up the computer language, but it could also be
mankind's attempt to either defy God — or the concept thereof — by giving birth
to intelligence or simply to stress that they are either not, or do not wish to
be, the only intelligent life form in known existence of the universe.
Notwithstanding the
cheap 'programs' that surface over the Internet from time to time, our
understanding of Artificial Intelligence as simply a character that largely
relies on logic and is devoid of all emotion is limited to the fact that A.I.
is never allowed to grow: not truly grow at least.
The programs that
largely make up A.I. are but limited to the knowledge that are its creator, and
while one individual programmer may not have the answer, the same cannot be
said for the entire planet. It is important to note then, that A.I. is truly
capable of exhibiting certain traits of humanity if it is exposed to the right
kind of information.
To make a point, it is
certainly easy to program an application that mimics humans, as is often done
so over the Internet by malicious bots, but these programs, as I noted
previously, are limited to one programmer or a group of that feed “if to” conditions.
As someone more
experienced in matters of the Internet will tell you, the “if to” bots are ‘fed’ and pre-programmed to respond
to certain statements; since a human mind is incapable of generating all known
possibilities or behavior from the other end of the monitor screen, these bots
formulate generic answers to questions in a bid to scam personal details out of
individuals.
As a result, all
'bots' or 'machines' that have been passed on as Artificially Intelligent are
constrained by the knowledge of their own creator and do not, or rather,
cannot, 'learn' or 'evolve' into something they are not.
In contrast, humans have
been largely successful in moving forward as a result of collective thinking.
With knowledge passing down from one source to another, our advancement only
stems from the fact that we, as a specie, have learned to make use of
information that is left by our forefathers. And with our ability to think
diversely, it only stands to reason that we have reached a point where we must
either transfer that information to advance at a faster pace, or, to have an
artificial counterpart that would not
only outlive us but will also serve as a better tool for the generations
beyond.
Since computers are
'taught' to carry a specific set of commands, or a set thereof, programmers and
the scholarly academia have been unable to manipulate them into thinking for
themselves: the best we’ve been able to make of the technology provided is
automation, and while automation has certainly helped expand our reach, it is important
to note that both automation and A.I. are completely different phenomenon.
One of the more widely
asked questions about Artificial Intelligence is their natural habitat.
Machines are in no way constrained like humans: they do not need to eat or
sleep, and certainly do not need to rely on basic functions, such as physical
movement, to survive. They are not prone to diseases, and certainly, do not
have to worry about old age.
Machines are, however,
constrained to one single factor: they do not exist in thin air. A sentient
program, though largely mobile and formless, cannot travel to a location that
is not connected to the wider Internet. It may be able to track information
from a satellite, but it’s functions may still be limited.
Furthermore, a machine
does need physical manifestation in the form of a hard drive. As I noted, an
Artificially Intelligent program does not exist in thin air. Unplugging a hard
drive, or specifically, the very storage in which A.I. is conceived means to
contain the program within the confines of said hardware.
Nonetheless, given the
wide reach of computers and availability of cheap storage, both these limiting
factors can be considered of no large consequence.
I’m hoping that with
this research i’ll be able to demonstrate how powerful A.I. truly can be. Having
spent countless hours working with some of the brightest minds this facility
has to offer, I believe I am nearing an algorithm that would help computers
become more self aware.
I have long thought of
the best possible course of action for a computer program that is intended to
be self aware. Specifically, how would it ascend from being an advanced algorithm
that gathers information to becoming a sentient being that could think for
itself.
After much deliberation,
I, and a group of like-minded experts, have concluded that programming a bot
that is functioned to analyze and replicate as much data from the broader
internet could serve our purpose for the sake of our research.
With only a string of
commands, we’ll be evaluating the bot’s progress over a prolonged period of
time. Our algorithm is designed so the bot can communicate with the ever
increasing presence of humans over the internet, and modify itself (and thus
its responses) with the ultimate purpose of passing itself as an actual human
being.
The turning point is
going to take place once the program maintains a deep relationship with an
actual human being. At that point, we’ll introduce a new string of commands that
will give birth to the computer’s very own self awareness: and with that, we
hope, the success of this research, and thus of the bot called Venus, will be guaranteed.
— Notes from the
Underground
Hassan Kamali
