Artificial intelligence

111 Pages·2011·163.158 MB·English

by  P Andrew Karam

S C I E N C E
F O U N D A T I O N S
Artificial Intelligence
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SCIENCE FOUNDATIONS
Artifi cial Intelligence
Atomic Structure
Th e Big Bang
Cell Th eory
Electricity and Magnetism
Evolution
Th e Expanding Universe
Th e Genetic Code
Germ Th eory
Global Warming and Climate Change
Gravity
Heredity
Kingdoms of Life
Light and Sound
Matter and Energy
Natural Selection
Planetary Motion
Plate Tectonics
Quantum Th eory
Radioactivity
Th eory of Relativity
Vaccines
Viruses
Th e Water Cycle
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S C I E N C E
F O U N D AT I O N S
Artificial Intelligence
P. ANDREW KARAM
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Science Foundations: Artifi cial Intelligence
Copyright © 2012 by Infobase Learning
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Karam, P. Andrew.
Artifi cial intelligence / by P. Andrew Karam.
p. cm. — (Science foundations)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61753-027-2 (hardcover : acid-free paper)
ISBN 978-1-4381-3947-0 (e-book) 1. Artifi cial intelligence—Juvenile litera-
ture. I. Title. II. Series.
Q335.4.K37 2011
006.3—dc23 2011012800
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Book printed and bound by IBT Global, Troy, N.Y.
Date printed: November 2011
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1 What Is Artifi cial Intelligence? 7
2 The History of AI 18
3 Problems and Pitfalls
in Developing AI 37
4 AI in Movies, Books, and Television:
From Golems to Cylons 54
5 AI at Work Today and in the Future 73
6 Is AI Worth the Risk? 90
Glossary 99
Bibliography 102
Further Resources 103
Picture Credits 105
Index 106
About the Author 109
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What Is Artifi cial
Intelligence?
Artifi cial intelligence (AI) consists of machines that are as
smart, or smarter, than humans. Most often, computers con-
trol these machines. Th ere are many examples of artifi cial intelli-
gence in science fi ction fi lms and shows. One example is the Cylons
in the TV and fi lm franchise Battlestar Galactica, which are robots
that turned against humans. Other examples include the smart ro-
bots and Skynet from the Terminator movies and TV series. Th ese
machines were examples of evil artifi cial intelligence that were try-
ing to kill people. If this is what AI research represents, do we really
want to make intelligent machines?
On the other hand, everybody who watches Star Trek knows
that artifi cial intelligence can be a good thing. Th e android charac-
ter Lieutenant Commander Data uses his intelligence and strength
to help his crewmates. Because of his design, he will not hurt people.
If intelligent robots of the future are made like Data, programmed
not to harm humans, we should not worry. Instead, we should be
developing AI as quickly as possible.
Th e previous examples make opinions about AI seem simple:
If smart robots are evil, then we should not create them; if smart
robots are good, then perhaps we should create them. However,
nothing is ever that simple. For example, as sci-fi fans know, Data
had an evil “brother,” and there were a few Cylons and Terminator
7
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8 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Figure 1.1 Lieutenant Commander Data (actor Brent Spiner) checks out
B-4, his less-advanced predecessor, in the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis.
robots that were good. Th ey were actually helpful to humans. Even
in these popular fi ctional shows and movies, the truth is that intel-
ligent machines were neither completely good nor bad. Today we
are unclear as to whether artifi cial intelligence is going to end up as
humanity’s savior, destroyer, or simply another tool for us to use. In
any case, you need to know the basics about AI before deciding on
its pros and cons, so keep reading.
WHAT ARE SENTIENCE AND
INTELLIGENCE?
Two key words used a lot in AI research are sentience and intel-
ligence. Th e fi rst term, sentience, is a little easier to understand.
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What Is Artifi cial Intelligence? 9
Sentience is the ability to feel and to experience perceptions—in
other words, to experience the world through the senses of sight,
hearing, touch, smell, and taste. How can computers or robots be
sentient? A computer can be hooked up to a camera or a scanner
that feeds images into it the same way that human eyes feed images
into the brain. Th us, in this sense, computers can see. Also, we can
hook up computers to microphones and even program them to rec-
ognize words when a person talks into a microphone or telephone.
Th erefore, computers can also hear. Incredibly, there are even de-
vices that help computers to smell, taste, and touch, although these
are still being developed and perfected. Th e bottom line is that some
computers and robots are able to sense the world. Whether or not
they can understand or appreciate what their senses tell them is
something else.
Some scientists think that there is more to sentience than just
being able to sense the world. Th ey think that to be truly sentient one
must be able to experience the sensation in an emotional way. When
a dog smells food, it gets excited. When it sees a family member, it
becomes happy. Th ese scientists would say that even after attaching
a camera to a computer to allow it to see, the computer would not
feel excited if its owner walked in front of the lens. Th ere is a diff er-
ence between a computer “seeing” a scanned image and a dog or a
person seeing something that makes them happy. By defi nition, we
might say that a computer is sentient because it can be fi tted with
cameras, microphones, and other sensors to touch and taste. How-
ever, some scientists would still say that just because a computer
can sense, it is not necessarily true that it is sentient, or sensitive in
perception or feeling.
Th e other key word in AI research is intelligence. It is diffi cult to
precisely defi ne this word. An intelligent person is smart, and intel-
ligence has something to do with the ability to think. A dictionary
defi nition of intelligence might say something like, “having the abil-
ity to learn new things, to learn from experience, and to use this
knowledge to solve problems.” Let’s try to put this defi nition to use
in AI.
Part of the defi nition of intelligence is about the ability to learn,
and most of us would agree that learning means that we are add-
ing new knowledge about something to our brains. When students
are young, they learn that 2 + 2 = 4, and they learn that George
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