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What we need to talk about when we talk about AI
A Google team’s attempt to set a standard for classifying the capabilities of superhuman computers is vital to a more reasoned, effective conversation.
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Classifying AGI will be much more complex than autonomous vehicles because the latter is merely a subset of the former.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Dave Lee
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Ever since Alan Turing’s “imitation game”, we have been acutely aware of the importance of measuring the capabilities of computers against our own miraculous brains. The British pioneer’s method, outlined in 1950, is primitive today, but it sought to answer a persistent question: How will we tell when a machine has become as (or more) intelligent than a human being?
Defining such progress is imperative for productive conversations about artificial intelligence (AI). Specifically, the question of what can be considered artificial general intelligence (AGI) – a “mind” as adaptable as our own – needs to be considered using a set of shared parameters. Currently, the term lacks precise definitions, making predictions of AGI’s arrival and impact simultaneously both unnecessarily alarmist or insufficiently concerned.
