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The human brain is not a machine
This common comparison invites us to see ourselves as sub-optimal alternatives to AI agents.
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Humans and AI systems are both powerful, but in fundamentally different ways.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
The temptation to see the human brain as a kind of machine has been around for a long time. Marvin Minsky, a pioneer in artificial intelligence, used to provocatively call humans “meat machines”. Going further back, one analogy from the pre-computer era described the brain as an “enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern”, as the science writer Michael Pollan describes in his new book A World Appears.
So it is no surprise that some people at the forefront of AI now believe their models could soon become conscious. If the brain is akin to a computer, then why wouldn’t a super-powerful computer develop consciousness too?
