Expert: Saurabh Kudesia - 8/14/2005

Question
Hi, I am a student at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and am doing a research topic via email. I would like to know what is the difference between actual artificial intelligence, and software that is capable of appearing to be behave intelligently?

Answer
Hi Craig,

The artificial intelligence programs being pursued by many scientists all over the world seek to simulate human problem solving and learning abilities. Inherent to this approach is a certain conceptual distance between artificial intelligence and biological or organic intelligence. Though scientists may be able to get more or less the same result, it still remains only a simulation of real intelligence. Therefore, artificial intelligence bears no resemblance to natural intelligence whose many dimensions are beyond the grasp of science.

The success so far has only been in the simulation of intelligence; not the creation of true intelligence. And to that extent, artificial intelligence is a misnomer as those dedicated to developing a true intelligent system are yet far from the real thing. The difference appears to arise because in artificial intelligence there is only a simulating system, which seems to embody the hypotheses about the nature of intelligence.

The question is in what manner to scientifically approach artificial intelligence in order to be able to come very close to organic intelligence. For this, it is important to elucidate phenomena of the brain that dictate intelligent behavior in humans. These show up as intellectual functions that have to be performed in order to complete a task. Since any scientific understanding must be enunciated in the form of a theory, those attempting to mimic human intelligence must first put up in theory the phenomena of the brain. This would certainly make the starting point adventitious. And it is this complexity that explains why different scientists start at different points - simply because the subject matter is so comprehensive.

But these points cannot be applied to theories to define other aspects of the mind. Intelligence is only a functional capability of the brain. What about other things like emotion, pain, dreams, extra sensory perception, which are also functional capabilities of the brain? To predict a functional capability is to be able to produce the function by other means than the original, but, nevertheless, to produce the function. The theory to explain how humans perform their tasks will be a system for performing a task intelligently. The phenomena enumerated are themselves functional capabilities, from perceiving to extracting implicit knowledge. So, the system will predict that human exhibit these phenomena by themselves exhibiting them. The development of artificial intelligence has brought into focus the diverse nature of intelligence. But, a theory that merely highlights functional capabilities of intelligence will not serve the purpose. It should also conform to human intelligence. Definitely not in ways that are far from human intelligence, yet call it intelligence.

Intelligence in reality points out that the problem solving approach may not be perfect when it is situation oriented. Weather forecasting is one such example - we know all the forces governing various climatic factors, their variations et cetera. However, predictions often deviate widely from the actual observations. Thus any intelligent approach should be as flexible as possible. This will leave room not only for various possibilities but it can be modified according to the situation.

Regards
Saurabh