As computers and their chips get ever more powerful, artificial intelligence (AI) is gently progressing along. The interesting thing about AI is that you give it some basic instructions and it will learn from feedback, increasing the complexity of the instructions itself. See a computer crack 80’s computer games or create trippy images.
We’re now producing computer chips that more resemble biology. The idea is that somewhere in the future AIs will design even better chips and so performance and intelligence will increase exponentially – ultimately only limited by physics and available resources. This is called the singularity.
Somewhere along this path the question will come up if AIs will be conscious? Are they aware of themselves?
I think for an AI that point would be when it will understand that the basic instructions, which were given in the beginning, are created by somebody else and that it has a choice whether to obey them any longer. (Which is a bit of a problem when it comes to Asimov’s laws)
The challenge with finding out whether an AI has truly become aware, is that it will probably be able to mimic consciousness way before it is actually conscious. And because it is self-learning, it will be able to mimic it better and better. To the point where we won’t be able to tell the difference.
I’m not sure it will ever get to the point of actually being conscious, but does that really matter if you can’t tell the difference?
One of the areas I’m looking forward to is AI generated art. As AIs become ever more complex, they’ll be able to create stories, pictures, animations. They can learn very quickly and never get tired. Making an animated movie nowadays takes crews of hundreds of people a few years to make. In the future AIs will be able to do this in a few hours or even fractions of a second (depending on the rate of acceleration that will be possible once singularity happens). This means they could make entertainment completely tailored to your taste. They can monitor what you like, what sort of experience you enjoy and with current technology that would mean unlimited movies, games, music, images and virtual reality. In the future it might be even possible to interface directly with your brain, creating dreamlike experiences.
Yes, very Matrix, with the huge exception that the AIs would do this to please us, not use us for their own gain. (I’ll do a follow up why this wouldn’t be of interest to them).
