One challenge I see in AI is that humans tend to attribute human traits to non-human entities (Anthropomorphism). This tendency leads people to expect something from AI that they can do quickly and to be shocked when we find AI to be brittle and lacking fundamental features of human understanding.
Having raised children and now playing with my grandchildren, it often amazes me at just how much we take for granted in that comes "out of the box" with a human brain. Humans can build associations with very few samples, and we come pre-wired with all sorts of tools from primary systems like hearing, visual, sensory systems to complex capabilities like speech and communication abilities.
I've worked with computers for 37 years, and the progression has been amazing, but we're still a long ways away from the primary capabilities of even a house cat.
All this said I often wonder if the reason for the failure of current AI systems to wow us is the gap between power density of a human brain vs. compute systems. I've heard it said that DeepMind burned an order of magnitude more than the 20W/hr a typical human brain uses. When we have compute systems with that power density, we may see more emergent behaviors from our silicon-based friends.
Either way, I think AI has useful applications today and I hope we will find many useful applications of these technologies to make our lives better and make more time for us to learn, love and care for one another.
Having raised children and now playing with my grandchildren, it often amazes me at just how much we take for granted in that comes "out of the box" with a human brain. Humans can build associations with very few samples, and we come pre-wired with all sorts of tools from primary systems like hearing, visual, sensory systems to complex capabilities like speech and communication abilities.
I've worked with computers for 37 years, and the progression has been amazing, but we're still a long ways away from the primary capabilities of even a house cat.
All this said I often wonder if the reason for the failure of current AI systems to wow us is the gap between power density of a human brain vs. compute systems. I've heard it said that DeepMind burned an order of magnitude more than the 20W/hr a typical human brain uses. When we have compute systems with that power density, we may see more emergent behaviors from our silicon-based friends.
Either way, I think AI has useful applications today and I hope we will find many useful applications of these technologies to make our lives better and make more time for us to learn, love and care for one another.