How to Fight the Bloatware of AI

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: June 1, 2017 at 7:47:16 AM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] How to Fight the Bloatware of AI
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> How to Fight the Bloatware of AI
> By Peter Sweeney
> Mar 30 2017
> <https://medium.com/@petersweeney/ai-bloatware-why-the-popular-vision-of-ai-is-misleading-ca98c0680f4>
>
> Human intelligence is a misleading vision for AI. The intelligence we need to create in machines isn’t a natural 
> phenomenon, it’s a human invention. The goal isn’t artificial human intelligence, it’s automated scientific discovery.
>
> The bloatware of intelligence
>
> What is intelligence? It’s an inherently controversial and bloated question. Here are 70 definitions of intelligence, 
> and this list barely scratches the surface. But whatever your working definition, the human variety of general 
> intelligence is indisputably our best example.
>
> As such, conventional wisdom holds that the only reasonable archetype for artificial intelligence is human. But is it 
> true?
>
> Experts would dispute this popular notion. Norvig and Stuart highlight that thinking and acting humanly is but one 
> slice of AI; rationality is a peer level consideration. Clearly, we don’t need to reverse engineer every human 
> instinct and product of our natural intelligence. As Yuval Noah Harari explains, “AI is nowhere near human-like 
> existence, but 99 percent of human qualities and abilities are simply redundant for the performance of most modern 
> jobs.”
>
> “99 percent of human qualities and abilities are simply redundant” — Yuval Noah Harari
> So if human intelligence is bloatware, why is it such an enduring vision for AI? One explanation is its stickiness. 
> Abstractions like rational agents can’t compete with the concreteness of artificial humans to inspire and motivate 
> our efforts. Movies about androids are blockbusters; it’s hard to even recall movies about rationality.
>
> Another explanation might simply be our tendency to imagine new technologies in the frame of old. Cars weren’t cars 
> at first, they were horseless carriages. Telephones were speech-enabled telegraphs. In this context, the idea of AI 
> as artificial human intelligence is certainly forgivable.
>
> Forgivable, but misguided. Human intelligence is bloatware, and bloatware can kill (or at least seriously delay) even 
> the most determined projects.
>
> Knowledge creating machines
>
> So if human intelligence is misleading, then what is our guide? The answer is illuminated, not with the question of 
> what is artificial intelligence, but rather why?
>
> “What society most needs is automated scientific discovery.” — Gary Marcus
> In essence, we need AI to deliver inventive solutions to our problems, the means for creating new knowledge. 
> Moreover, we want machines that create good knowledge, effective explanations of how to change the world.
>
> Before you retreat to the comfort of human intelligence, recall that humans are notoriously flawed knowledge 
> creators. Anatomically modern humans have existed for 200,000 years. Yet it’s only within the past few centuries, 
> beginning with the scientific revolution, that humans began making consistent, predictable progress through the 
> creation of good knowledge. Earlier humans produced a wealth of bad knowledge, most of it long forgotten.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/>



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