Artificial Intelligence (A.I) is probably one of the most misused terms in technology and data science. AI as a thing in itself (something created as a thing to be admired and used) is featured in articles, books, politician speeches, and even in consultancy companies PowerPoint slides; let alone that the Pope talks about it [https://towardsdatascience.com/no-artificial-intelligence-doesnt-exist-yet-3318d83fdfe8].
But if there is artificial intelligence, what is it? In order to answer that question, we should first ask what is intelligence and if there could be artificial intelligence? From a sociologists point of view, intelligence is “learning by association” within the framework of social interaction (one to another in a given place) starting with mother, then parents, siblings (if any) grandparents and the wider community. In years past, anyone who was not considered intelligent by their peers and or local community was the village idiot. Which meant then that some people just don't 'learn'. And, that still may be the case.
What is learning by association if it truly is the 'mark' of intelligence? One has to be able to learn what one is and is not. In saying that, we can assume there is a kind of internal coding of who is who, what is what (and is not etc.) and how everyone works together agreeing on or not what the causality is and thus assessing what is and what is not in a place over time that more often than not produces positive outcomes for the one and the group...which 'intelligent' people call progress.
Though that seems to be relatively enough to understand intelligence, its not enough as some things translate automatically through place and culture. Intelligence is found in humor, in jokes, in idiomatic expressions, in pranks, in strategies, in entertainment, in performance, in relaxation and enjoyment of even simple pleasures like that of seeing a rainbow after a storm. Its writing a poem, even if no one else reads it.
THE INSTITUTE Artificial-intelligence systems are nowhere near advanced enough to replace humans in many tasks involving reasoning, real-world knowledge, and social interaction. They are showing human-level competence in low-level pattern recognition skills, but at the cognitive level they are merely imitating human intelligence, not engaging deeply and creatively, says Michael I. Jordan, a leading researcher in AI and machine learning. Jordan is a professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science, and the department of statistics, at the University of California, Berkeley.
Jordan says, "People are getting confused about the meaning of AI in discussions of technology trends—that there is some kind of intelligent thought in computers that is responsible for the progress and which is competing with humans," he says. “We don't have that, but people are talking as if we do" [https://spectrum.ieee.org/stop-calling-everything-ai-machinelearning-pioneer-says].
Commentary: AI in discussions of technology trends—that there is some kind of intelligent thought in computers that is responsible for the progress and which is competing with humans," he says. “We don't have that, but people are talking as if we do".
Exactly, why are people talking as if we do? The word here to examine is not necessarily intelligence but progress. People everywhere have fallen for the word progress as if that represents man's existence. Does one have to progress in order to be intelligent? No, however, western man has a tendency to think so. Max Weber, one of my favorite sociologist, wrote that western (Judeo-Christian) man thinks that man has a duty to overcome the world. That kind of thought is in many ways, artificial intelligence in progress. The man who has a tendency to think he moves forward has yet to really learn.
Interesting as that is about western thought, we still observe many people worldwide fascinated with Ai and they are of different beliefs/world views/culture. Perhaps, they are fascinated or even afraid for their humanity in terms of who controls Ai. One should consider that is the real problem, isn't it? Who has the con in terms of progress.
Should we (the west) like them (everyone else) be fascinated or afraid of who has the con? In context of humanity as we know it, we should. Indeed, there really is a potential threat to humanity. Not just in light of the fact that Ai technology (who controls it) applied not only in weaponry but in all other aspects of our human existence that was and is created through social interaction/learning.
It is a threat to our social reality, our social interaction (face to face relationships) as we observe that happening already via social media. And, a threat to the paramount reality, the world of work, given that jobs of all kinds will be affected in one way or another.
Ai will and has crossed national borders making more and more people redundant and or irrelevant or displaced from the place they belong. As time goes on, eventually man will accept Ai as his/her new 'social' reality and meld with Ai and that is certainly a direct threat to all humanity. We could become aliens unto ourselves and to those who came before us as we effectively become 'artificially' intelligent, 'artificially' in progress.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”…Genesis 1: 26-28.
*Let us rule! Don't take the mark of the beast... know who you are and are not !
