1.
Artificial Intelligence
Should You be Worried or Very, Very Worried?

2.
The Frankenstein Theme

3.
ACulturalArchetype
It pervades not just science fiction but science and culture.

4.
Asimov: Your Fears Are Unfounded
1. A robot may not injure a
human being or, through
inaction, allow a human being
to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders
given it by human beings,
except where such orders
would conflict with the First
Law.
3. A robot must protect its own
existence as long as such
protection does not conflict
with the First or Second Law.
Isaac Asimov
The Three Laws of Robotics
(fictional)

5.
Which is It?
The creation turns on its creator. The robot servant.

6.
OK, What is “A.I.”?
Descartes Cybernetics

7.
1970s: SHRDLU
Person: Pick up a big red block.
Computer: OK.
Person: Grasp the pyramid.
Computer: I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHICH PYRAMID
YOU MEAN.
Person (changing their mind): Find a block
which is taller than the one you are holding
and put it into the box.
Computer: BY "IT", I ASSUME YOU MEAN THE
BLOCK WHICH IS TALLER THAN THE ONE I AM
HOLDING.
Computer: OK.
Person: What does the box contain?
Computer: THE BLUE PYRAMID AND THE BLUE
BLOCK.
Person: What is the pyramid supported by?
Computer: THE BOX.
Person: How many blocks are not in the box?
Computer: FOUR OF THEM.
Person: Is at least one of them narrower
than the one which i told you to pick up?
Computer: YES, THE RED CUBE.
Terry Winograd, MIT
The machine understood natural
language to manipulate an imaginary
world of blocks, cones, and balls.

8.
Today
• Siri
• Cortana
• Alexa
• Google Now

9.
Artificial Intelligence
“Artificial Intelligence is the intelligence exhibited by machines.”
o Wikipedia
“AI means getting a machine to do something you didn’t think a
machine could do.”
o Roger Schank (1991) “Where’s the AI?” AI Magazine
Years ago, optical character recognition and
chess playing were AI, today they are not.
Schank (1991)

10.
Important Distinctions I
Awareness Intelligence

11.
Important Distinctions II
Strong AI Weak AI

12.
Important Distinctions III
Hard AI Soft AI
Machine learning = data crunching

13.
What is intelligence?
Noam Chomsky Peter Norvigvs.

14.
The Singularity
Irving John Good – 1960s
• The ultraintelligent machine
“A machine that can far surpass the
intellectual activities of any man however
clever. … an ultraintelligent machine
could design even better machines ... The
intelligence of man would be left far
behind.”

15.
The Singularity
Ray Kurzweil – 2005
• The Singularity
“It’s a future period during
which the pace of technological
change will be so rapid, its
impact so deep, that human life
will be irreversibly transformed.”
o Kurzweil, “The Singularity is Near” pg. 7
Oh don’t forget …
• Stephen Hawking
• Bill Gates
• Elon Musk

16.
Where are We Now?
• “… by 2010, keyboards and mice will become obsolete.”
o Ray Kurzweil, keynote to GDC Conference, 2008
• Microsoft Tay AI Chat Bot
Twitter taught it to love Hitler, deny the
Holocaust, promote incest, and claim Bush
planned 9/11
• General purpose robots are years or more
away, only special purpose robots make
sense.
o SXSW 2016 Panel “One Robot Doesn’t Fit All”

17.
Where are We Now?
• Google Translate – Russian joke:
• But … Google AlphaGo defeats Go Champion
Rabinovich complaining neighbor that we should dig up the garden, and
no strength, it is hard. Once he leaves, the neighbor calls the KGB: “I
Rabinovich buried in the garden gold. ” Immediately call Rabinovitch:
“Rabinovich! You tonight to dig up the whole garden, I agree!

18.
What is the Real Danger?
• Algorithmic Lunacy
• Job search AI recommended women lower paying jobs
• Health app on smartphone nags user in wheelchair
• Google automatic picture tagging labels black people as “gorillas”
o SXSW 2016 Panel
What about systems controlling our water,
transportation etc. ?
Faith in the nearness of AI engenders trust in AI,
should it?

19.
Big Data
• Big Data = U.S. Census
vs. Sample Survey
• Google search big data
predicts the flu – then
it doesn’t
• When should we worry
about privacy and
when not?

20.
Artificial Semi-Intelligence
• The broom is an
artificial intelligence
• It is not “smart”
• It does not want to
cause the downfall of
the human race
• It has an error in its
programming
• It is dangerous

21.
Thank You