P. Yuvasree,
Student,
Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Chennai
K M Poongodi,
Student,
Ethiraj College For Women, Chennai.
After AI’s winter, 21st century is considered the blooming age of AI, after having witnessed the increase by leaps and bounds in its investments and a hike in interest about the AI. The aim of this work is to show the differences between fantasy and reality in accordance with the human brain, in association with the AI. The discussion on constructive and destructive fantasies on AI brings into light both the pros and cons; A hope for something promising as well as otherwise which will place the forthcoming AI as being productive or counterproductive. Quotes from Marco Badwall on habit loop, and Stephen Hawking on AI's possible destructive nature, Lisa Feldman Barret’s view on emotions and Mayor's myth support my work. The need for the big data storage system and energy requirement in relation to the human brain. The metaphorical comparison of emotional intelligence is the anchor in an AI and a description of the selection of data.
INTRODUCTION
Artificial Intelligence has a plethora of categories in which I am here to cast the spotlight on “fantasies” that are about and associated with AI. Why then, is it still considered a fantasy despite the unbeatable capacity of the human brain and the data pertaining to our habits and emotions?
FANTASIZING THE WORLD OF AI
According to The Cambridge dictionary:
Fantasy is a pleasant situation that you enjoy thinking about but is unlikely to happen, or a story or a type of literature that describes situations that are very different from real life, usually involving magic
In real life, we have come to meet fantasies through fictions, movies and games where, the duality emerges as we place forth a hypothesis, or a theory, which only time factor and further researches can prove both constructive and destructive fantasies.
Constructive fantasies on AI usually are more welcomed by people who would like to face only the better side of the machine intelligence.. The fantasies of people in the contemporary world have travelled beyond that of any ordinary movie and have entered into the fantastical realm of a utopian world. We fantasize that, once AI is built completely, it would replicate itself with its intelligence and would set out to would save our world from the devastating effect that humans have brought upon themselves as well as to the planet, polluting it, causing global warming, health issues, defiling it and that it would enable people to achieve whatever they need. AI has the potential to bring about the dawn of Zenith of human civilization. Mankind would feel “blessed” and There would be no disease, decrepitude or anything to be feared. The world of AI would be like the age in a Satya era (The Golden age).
Destructive fantasies on AI, on the other hand, talks about the odds of the arousal of jealousy between humans and AI over the domain. It might assume the role of puppeteer, subjugating us humans into being puppets. They just might even be able to unravel and unlock the mysteries of the human world and cosmos, discover Multiverses etc. which might potentially pose a risk, a threat to the Human race. Ultron, from the well known Marvel series, could be placed as an archetypal example for the same Here, I would like to quote Stephen Hawking, to aid and enhance the above statements.
“THE DEVELOPMENT OF FULL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COULD SPELL THE END OF THE HUMAN RACE”.
WHY IS AI JUST A FANTASY?
In today’s world, we have lots of IOTs and bio wearables which might give us hope that an AI, which would be possible only if it has data and human-like intelligence is not far from reach. This is the 21st century, whereupon, after Alpha goes a success, the AI now focuses on deep learning, learning everything from scratch. However, it is as of now, not likely possible to store each and every data in one connected network where the selection of data according to the new situation will not be questionable.
WHAT IS AI?
In simple terms, it is a computer program which has the ability to think and learn. Simply, it’s an artificially made human brain.
CAN HUMANS STORE DATA (MEMORIES) WITHOUT EXPERIENCE?
It’s impossible for humans to learn without experience, which can be proven by various experiments, of which isolation of a child leading to not only the lack of its 'civilization' but also it’s the inability to learn to “speak” a “language” without proper exposition or contact with the required environment could be taken into account as a simple example.
ARE HABITS MADE?
According to Marco Badwal, a full-time research scholar at Harvard University, half of everything in human’s daily life are habits that are ‘programmed’. From the time we get up, playing computer games, using mobile phones, checking notifications, driving a car etc. Which make us think that sometimes, certain abilities or actions and habits of ours are already hardwired into our brain.
WHAT HABITS ARE:
Habits are but automated and repetitive behaviours.
In today’s world automated and repetitive behaviours are possible with machine learning as humans are trained to get habituated to certain things. We can reprogram our habits, if necessary, which Marco defines as a habit loop. When we reprogram our habit we could see that there are neurons interconnected to perform it and that these neurons are getting stronger and the behaviour becomes a habit. He points out that the brain is an energy consumer. Weighing about 2% of body weight, it consumes 20% of our whole energy supply. The more important the activity is, the more repetitive the action is, forming ‘habits’. Thus the execution of an important action by the brain costs very little energy. That is, the thicker the connections between neurons, the lesser the energy is needed to perform a behaviour and to activate the neurons. We have a countless number of neurons, more than trillions of which everything is interconnected. For an AI, the data stored based on situations that have occurred already requires less energy whereas for the ‘contemplation’ 'recognition' 'training' and 'execution' of an unfamiliar one would consume a lot of energy. We will be needing more powerful batteries and data saving network to make this virtual fantasy a reality.
Similarly, with emotions, there are technologies in the contemporary world which could read emotions through the detection of facial expressions..or...could It?
According to Lisa Feldman Barret,
EMOTIONS CAN VARY WIDELY DEPENDING ON THE CONTEXT’.
She shares this striking claim with metadata to support it. The point is not only that no pattern of neural activity reliably corresponds to emotional state but, moreover, that neural activities and networks that do sometimes support emotion also do cognitive and perpetual work.
According to Lisa, our brain tries to guess emotions in the face of others, similar technologies do the same, but both fail in reality because emotion can vary widely depending on the context as sometimes objectivity are but subjectively objective when one can’t see past the visible claims.
CONCLUSIONS
AI can pop out of fantasy into being a part of our reality if we could get our hands on superpower batteries, enhanced storage networks and a new analysing team for various situations to conserve the energy. “The story of Talos, which Hesiod first mentioned at around 700 BCE, offers one of the earliest conceptions of a robot”, says Mayor who is also a part of the centre for advanced study in the behavioural sciences. The myth describes Talos as a giant of bronze that Hephaestus, the Greek God of inventions & black Smith, himself has built. At his core, the giant had a tube that connected his extreme terminals, his head at the top to his foot at the bottom through which flows the ichor, the mysterious elixir-like fluid believed to flow through the veins of gods. Zeus, the king of Greek gods, commissioned Talos to protect the island of Crete from invaders. Following the order, Talos marched around the island three times a day and hurled boulders at approaching enemy ships.
Another ancient tale of Argonautica, which dates to the third century BCE, describes how sorceress Medea defeated Talos by unbolting one of the fastened bolts at his ankle, letting the ichor fluid flow out, rendering him harmless and lifeless. Mayor says, we humans don’t have any ichor like fluid to give us mortals an intelligence beyond human comprehensibility, as Hephaestus did for Talos. Everything differs, bending it’s meaning and effect, moulding itself according to the situation. Even happiness differs because the group of people who view it perceive it differently. If these perceptions could be altered to superimpose each other, bringing together the people of different groups into one community, merging views, ideas and notions with a lack of any subjectivity, maybe then AI wouldn’t just remain a fantasy. We, humans, evolve and survive by learning to imitate, similarly, AI could be considered an imitation where it’s not about the creation or recreation and development of intelligence but just the usage of the already available data of humans. We will just have to train the AI to think, learn and to analyse different, new and unfamiliar situations that may arise to make AI a reality, a virtually true reality.
The Indian Learning, e-ISSN: 2582-5631, Volume 1, Issue 1, July 31, 2020.