Expert: George Moustris - 7/28/2011

Question
Hello,

I have been reading up on Ray Kurzweil's claims re the Singularity occurring sometime  by 2050(whereby AI becomes superintelligent etc.), plus there are others, such as Huebner and Modis who have suggested that, instead, our rate of technological change will eventually grind to a halt without any technological singularity occurring. I was wondering what your opinion was re the above5intelligent AI coming to pass etc.), and what solid data you may have come across which supports your conclusion, in your own opinion.

Thanks,
Geoff

Answer
Hi Geoff,

you raise a serious question, which cannot be answered with a simple response, or within the confines of this site (and frankly, would require too much time on my behalf to make a valid case). The first thing we must consider, is what really constitutes "intelligence"? Are we really talking about intelligence or is it "sentience" (consciousness)? Machines are already intelligent, to some degree, and will even get more so. I rather agree with Kurzweil. Just look at the Watson project at IBM. This is truly remarkable (and possibly scary!).
If we are talking about conscious machines, then things change. Firstly, we don't really know what consciousness is, let alone reproduce it (or even recognize it in other organisms-biological or mechanical). The Turing test is rather naive in this respect. Secondly, it is speculated by some researchers that consciousness may be a fundamental property of matter (the universe actually). In other words, we don't really know. Thus, i don't see conscious machines in the foreseeable future.

Best
G.