Current AI Trends and News About the Coming Revolution

Manga Iron Man Figure

Artificial Intelligence seems to be one of those underplayed elements in science fiction.  There also seems to be a great deal of recent general interest in this topic.  AI is one of those inventions that is making  a great many people nervous from Elon Musk to Stephen Hawking too.  Just recently, I read some real long blog posts (there first two links below could be a book - exaggeration here, but it was long) about artificial intelligence.

• http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html
• http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html 

• http://gizmodo.com/the-ai-revolution-how-far-away-are-our-robot-overlords-1684199433
• https://gigaom.com/2015/01/09/artificial-intelligence-is-real-now-and-its-just-getting-started/
• http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2015/01/pentagon-wants-real-roadmap-artificial-intelligence/102297/
• https://isismjpucher.wordpress.com/2014/12/25/the-future-is-machine-learning-not-programs-or-processes/
• http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/22/our-future-of-unlimited-wealth-and-joblessness/
• http://www.shivonzilis.com/machineintelligence
• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/stephen-hawking-right-about-dangers-of-ai-but-for-the-wrong-reasons-says-eminent-computer-expert-9908450.html

I majored in computer science years ago, but there really wasn't anything like this way back then.  So artificial intelligence can be categorized as:

• artificial narrow intelligence
• artificial general intelligence
• artificial super intelligence

Our world today has plenty of artificial narrow intelligence now.  Just look at Amazon's recommendation engine, Google's search engine, etc.  There are even expert AI's in specific areas of manufacturing, science, and medicine.  It is interesting that even this level of AI doesn't seem to exist in most science fiction.  The present is more advanced than a great deal of SF.  AI just doesn't seem to exist, but in a sufficiently advanced culture, maybe it just works and blends into the background.

Artificial general intelligence is when AI's are basically smart like people.  AI just isn't here yet, and might not get to this stage for awhile. Artificial super intelligence is basically an AI that is waaay smarter than us and can make itself even smarter.  This is probably where AIs should exist in most SF, but don't exist at all usually.  It is kind of interesting that there is this blind spot in many ways.  Too advanced for story telling?  The Star Carrier books actually have a super smart AI that lives on the moon, which was a nice touch.  And of course, the people don't know if they should trust it, but it seems to be good...

Myself, I worry about AI.  Not necessarily even the super AIs, but just the impact of robotics and AI on society.  The world is going to change, and we can see it coming, but who knows where it will take us.  I kind of suspect it will be a combination of new laws to govern the use of robots in the workplace and society adjusting to how robots are used in the workforce.  Jobs are never going to be the same once a tipping point is reached for both blue and white collar.  I'm hoping for a good future, but I can definitely understand the Skynet scenario too at one extreme of things.

Anyhow, have a great read of the articles.  Fascinating reading.