Artificial intelligence: Neither artificial nor intelligent?
Rajinder Kumar Bansal · Saudi Endodontic Journal · 2024
Sir, Humans have tried to recreate intelligence for effective decision-making and decreasing their workload by means of technology, known as artificial intelligence (AI). It works by mimicking the functioning of the human brain.[1] The term AI was given by John McCarthy in 1956, to describe a system that resembles the human brain for problem-solving.[2] Machine learning is the subfield of AI, which works by learning patterns from data, whereas deep learning uses artificial neural networks, with multiple layers to detect features such as lines, edges, textures, and complex shapes. In recent years, so much hype has been created about AI, but the real question is whether AI is actually as intelligent as we think. Machines based on AI systems are preprogrammed with huge amounts of data which are provided by humans to develop models for their functioning. John Searle highlighted that the intelligence we are trying to manufacture artificially is not really intelligence but is an illusion of human intelligence which is characteristic of the human species.[3] ChatGPT is a creative and professional output of real humans, musicians, programmers, and writers. Evgeny Morozov called AI as non-AI, as according to him, AI is neither artificial nor intelligent.[4] Human intelligence is the ability to create, think, reason, and remember, and is capable of problem-solving so that we can understand the world around us to make decisions, which is not possible with the use of AI.[5] Machines can perform tasks and do computations at lightning speed more efficiently than humans. They can also create music, paint, and modulate human voice and speech. However, machines do not have emotions and sentiments, for example, they cannot lash out anger on the chessboard or feel the pressure of an opponent’s intimidation tactics. They are not proud of their work as humans do. Chatbots can create an illusion of human emotions, but they cannot provide emotional support like humans can. Machines can provide feedback and can answer questions but cannot tell logic for the answer. Moreover, machines do not know what they are doing, why they are doing, and more importantly, they do not even want to know, and this is what separates them from humans.[6] According to Yuval Noah Harari, we must take into account humor, wit, morality, ethics, self-awareness, intuition, consciousness, imagination, deception, selfishness, and the ability to lie and cheat to evaluate intelligence. Machines have huge knowledge depending on the data stored in them. If knowledge and information were the only criteria for intelligence, then any supercomputer would have replaced Einstein and millions of copies of his mind would have been reproduced by today.[6] Machines can remember input information, perform better, faster, and efficiently, but they do not have an independent existence, and they cannot draw conclusions from their experiences as humans can.[7] AI is the most important and rapidly growing technology today. However, the contribution of AI does not make machines intelligent, as there is no system till such date that can replicate human intelligence even a little bit. If we consider self-awareness and humanity rather than a goal-based approach to evaluate intelligence, then these artificial machines do not even qualify to be called intelligent. In the future, machines can be made artificially intelligent by improving the accuracy of unsupervised learning algorithms as they do not need humans to annotate the data and learn on their own by identifying hidden patterns and structures in data. AI used today is weak or artificial narrow intelligence, which carries only specific tasks. With further research, artificial general intelligence will develop, which has human-like intelligence and can solve complex tasks with human cognitive abilities without any training. AI machines will definitely step in the future, but when, only time has the answer. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.