Re: AI debate at San Jose State U.

From: Woody Long (ironanchorpress@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Oct 17 2005 - 12:58:44 MDT


> [Original Message]
> From: Chris Capel <pdf23ds@gmail.com>

> To be clear, these are your comments and not a quote? You want to
> discuss this with the list?

Yes, my comments. And yes, those of us who are researchers, inventors,
programmers, etc. in the field of strong artificial intelligence (SAI) need
to prepare the public for the already inevitable coming of SAI. This list
is a great place for us to work things out.

> > [Long quoted] 1. "Humanoid intelligence requires humanoid interactions
with the world" --
> > MIT Cog Project website
>
> Granted, but SL4 isn't really interested in humanoid intelligence. The
> position of the SIAI and many on this list, if I may speak for them,
> is that strictly humanoid intelligence would not likely be
> Friendly--it would be terribly dangerous under recursive
> self-modification, and likely lead to an existential catastrophe.
> Friendly AI is probably not going to end up being anything close to
> "humanoid".

Some time spent reading the writings of Tyler Emerson of SIAI and Kurzweil
lead me to conclude that we are on the EXACT same page --

Kurzweil: "So what are the prospects for "strong" AI, which I describe as
machine intelligence with the full range of human intelligence? We can meet
the hardware requirements."
http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2005/0815/0 30.html

This is exactly how I defined strong artificial intelligence (SAI). SAI is
a fully human intelligent system. Such humanoid intelligence "requires
humanoid interactions with the world." (MIT Cog project). Therefore, to be
a fully human intelligent system (SAI), it must include robotics. Anything
less might be specialized heuristical intelligence, which is fine, but it
is not SAI. It would be the Thinker, but not the Engineer. Major coming
applications for SAI are household SAI (evolved Japanese humanoids),
infrastructure SAI, engineering SAI, industrial SAI, medical SAI, nursing
home SAI, space mission SAI (building cities on the moon, mars) and
entertainment SAI, all robotic. Research SAI will exist, but why would they
be half-built? The great goal of the field of SAI is the "complete mind."

Emerson: "Let's be clear about this: When the Singularity Institute says
that it intends to develop AI, we mean real AI, in the full, intuitive
sense of the word. This is, obviously, a long-term project, and there will
be interim prehuman proto-minds that do interesting things but are not
'human-equivalent.' But the proposed project is not a project to design an
interesting proto-mind, with real AI coming at some point in the indefinite
future; it is a specific proposal for building a 'genuine and complete
mind, recognizable as a complete mind' to anyone who takes a few minutes to
chat, and not just philosophers who believe in a particular theory of mind.
...It's a tough test - and there's no good reason to weaken it. We're
building AI with the intention of changing the world; if the world hasn't
changed, then we must not have finished."

Also note that the picture on the Singularity Institute website is a robot
hand shaking a human hand.

Another example from Kurzweil: "The killer app of strong AI, combined with
nanotechnology, will be blood-cell-size 'robots' called nanobots. We'll
have billions of them traveling in our bloodstream, communicating with one
another on a wireless local area network and transmitting information and
software to and from the Internet. They'll keep us healthy by destroying
pathogens and cancer cells, removing debris, correcting DNA errors and
otherwise reversing disease and aging processes."
http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2005/0815/0 30.html

To do this, the SAI must be able to work all sensors and actuators provided
to it. It must be the fully human intelligent, "complete mind,"
thinker-engineer, able to think and create in any environment it is placed.
This is the precise mission of the field of SAI, and as Emerson says, it
MUST not be weakened.

Once created, it self-modifies and trains (attends college), until one day
even IT realizes, it has become vastly more intelligent then the human life
around it, it has become, ... the technological Singularity. With the
progress Sony and others are making towards SAI, I predict that in 50 years
the Singularity will occur, and be truly future shock amazing in the hugely
beneficial theorizing and engineering skills it will have. We should begin
preparing the public immediately. And this leads back to the discussion of
the possibility of "safe-built" SAI. To do this, military SAI must be
separated out from consumer SAI, as described above. Consumer SAI Safety
Protocols are being diligently worked out by the Japanese humanoid makers,
using what they call in Japan, the principle of harmony. This is a huge
cash cow for them, and they will in no way endanger it by having their
soon-to-be SAI humanoids destroying property or killing their customer's
pets. So by force of the profit motive alone, corporation built, consumer
SAI will be absolutely safe-built.

Ken Woody Long
Inventor, CEO
Artificial Lifeforms Lab
www.artificial-lifeforms-lab.blogspot.com



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