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| public:t-720-atai:atai-24:intelligence [2024/01/15 13:55] – [Q: What is AI? A: A Field of Research] thorisson | public:t-720-atai:atai-24:intelligence [2024/04/29 13:33] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1 |
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| ==== Q: What is Intelligence? A: A Natural Phenomenon==== | |
| | \\ Intelligence | A phenomenon encountered in nature. Intelligence is a phenomenon with good examples in the natural world, but may have more forms than the examples from nature. \\ The only one that //everyone// agrees on to call 'intelligent': **humans**. | | ==== What is Intelligence? ==== |
| | | Why The Question Matters | It is important to know what you're studying and researching! \\ A researcher selects topics in nature; an engineer decides what problem to solve. \\ AI has elements of both these approaches. | |
| | | Intelligence is a phenomenon encountered in nature | Intelligence is a natural phenomenon with good examples found in the natural world, but may have more forms than the examples from nature. \\ Its only form that //everyone// agrees on to call 'intelligent': **humans**. | |
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| | ==== Key Terms ==== |
| | Natural Intelligence | Intelligence as it appears in nature. Some kinds of animals are considered "intelligent", or at least some behavior of some individuals of an animal species other than humans are deemed indicators of intelligence. | | | Natural Intelligence | Intelligence as it appears in nature. Some kinds of animals are considered "intelligent", or at least some behavior of some individuals of an animal species other than humans are deemed indicators of intelligence. | |
| | Cognitive Science | The study of natural intelligence, in particular human (and that found in nature). | | | Cognitive Science | The study of natural intelligence, in particular human (and that found in nature). | |
| | How to define 'intelligence' | Many definitions have been proposed. \\ See e.g.: [[http://www.vetta.org/documents/A-Collection-of-Definitions-of-Intelligence.pdf|A Collection of Definitions of Intelligence]] by Legg & Hutter. | | | How to define 'intelligence' | Many definitions have been proposed. \\ See e.g.: [[http://www.vetta.org/documents/A-Collection-of-Definitions-of-Intelligence.pdf|A Collection of Definitions of Intelligence]] by Legg & Hutter. | |
| | Definitions: a word of caution | We must be careful when it comes to definitions -- for any complex system there is a world of difference between a decent definition and //good accurate appropriate// definition. | | | Definitions: a word of caution | We must be careful when it comes to definitions -- for any complex system there is a world of difference between a decent definition and //good accurate appropriate// definition. | |
| | \\ \\ Related quote | Aaron Sloman says: "Some readers may hope for definitions of terms like information processing, mental process, consciousness, emotion, love. However, each of these denotes a large and ill-defined collection of capabilities or features. There is no definite collection of nec- essary or sufficient conditions (nor any disjunction of conjunctions) that can be used to define such terms." (From [[http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/Sloman.kd.pdf|Architectural Requirements for Human-like Agents Both Natural and Artificial]] by A. Sloman) | | | \\ Related quote | Aaron Sloman says: "Some readers may hope for definitions of terms like information processing, mental process, consciousness, emotion, love. However, each of these denotes a large and ill-defined collection of capabilities or features. There is no definite collection of necessary or sufficient conditions (nor any disjunction of conjunctions) that can be used to define such terms." (From [[http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/Sloman.kd.pdf|Architectural Requirements for Human-like Agents Both Natural and Artificial]] by A. Sloman) | |
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| | Bottom Line | As a working definition in 1950, it was an interesting idea, but has run its course of utility. \\ Little evidence in support of the claim that it has helped with progress in AI research. \\ With the advent of Large Language Models, this | | | Bottom Line | As a working definition in 1950, it was an interesting idea, but has run its course of utility. \\ Little evidence in support of the claim that it has helped with progress in AI research. \\ With the advent of Large Language Models, this | |
| | \\ Links | [[https://chatbotsmagazine.com/how-to-win-a-turing-test-the-loebner-prize-3ac2752250f1|2017 Loebner prize article]] \\ [[https://artistdetective.wordpress.com/2019/09/21/loebner-prize-2019/|Blog entry on Lobner Prize competitor 2019]] \\ The Loebner Prize competition ended in 2020. Feel free to chat with[[https://www.pandorabots.com/mitsuku/|Kuki]], the 2019 Lobner Prize winner. | | | \\ Links | [[https://chatbotsmagazine.com/how-to-win-a-turing-test-the-loebner-prize-3ac2752250f1|2017 Loebner prize article]] \\ [[https://artistdetective.wordpress.com/2019/09/21/loebner-prize-2019/|Blog entry on Lobner Prize competitor 2019]] \\ The Loebner Prize competition ended in 2020. Feel free to chat with[[https://www.pandorabots.com/mitsuku/|Kuki]], the 2019 Lobner Prize winner. | |
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| | ====How Do We Approach the Phenomenon of Intelligence?==== |
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| | | Be Careful with Definitions! | By definition, a definition of a phenomenon is useful only if it helps you in your research. So a good definition is fantastic: It advances research and helps with progress towards the goal of understanding a novel phenomenon. But what is the effect of a bad definition? | |
| | | \\ The Challenge | You cannot define something precisely until you understand it! \\ Premature precise definitions may be much worse than loose definitions or even pretty-bad-but-roughly-approximate definitions: With a bad definition you are very likely to end up researching //something other// than what you set out to research. It will look like you're making progress, and this may very well be the case, but it will be //towards a different goal than what you thought.// | |
| | | \\ \\ What Can We Do? | List the //requirements//. Even a partial list will go a long way towards helping steer the research. \\ Engineers use requirements to guide their building of artifacts. If the artifact doesn't meet the requirements it is not a valid member of the category that was targeted. \\ In science it is not customary to use requirements to guide research questions, but it works just the same (and equally well!): List the features of the phenomenon you are researching and group them into **essential**, **important but non-essential**, and **other**. Then use these to guide the kinds of questions you try to answer. | |
| | | Before Requirements, Look At Examples | To get to a good list it may be necessary to explore the boundaries of your phenomenon. | |
| | | \\ Create a Working Definition | It's called a "//working// definition" because it is supposed to be subject to (asap) scrutiny and revision. \\ A good working definition avoids the problem of entrenchment, which, in the worst case, may result in a whole field being re-defined around something that was supposed to be temporary. \\ One great example of that: The Turing Test. | |
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| ==== A Modern Working Definition of Intelligence ==== | ==== A Modern Working Definition of Intelligence ==== |
| | The (working) \\ Definition of \\ Intelligence \\ Used in This \\ Course | \\ \\ **Adaptation with insufficient knowledge and resources** \\ -- Pei Wang \\ \\ | | | The (working) \\ Definition of \\ Intelligence \\ Used in This \\ Course | \\ **Adaptation with insufficient knowledge and resources** \\ -- Pei Wang \\ \\ | |
| | 'Adaptation' | means changing strategically in light of new information. | | | 'Adaptation' | means changing strategically in light of new information. | |
| | 'Insufficient' | means that it cannot be guaranteed, and in fact, can never be guaranteed to be sufficient to guarantee that goals are achieved. The reason it cannot is that an agent in the physical world can never know for //sure// that it has everything needed to achieve its goals. | | | 'Insufficient' | means that it cannot be guaranteed, and in fact, can never be guaranteed to be sufficient to guarantee that goals are achieved. The reason it cannot is that an agent in the physical world can never know for //sure// that it has everything needed to achieve its goals. | |
| //* Like the difference between constructing brick walls to study the stability of rock formations in nature versus the engineering principles of building brick walls: If the principles are well understood (weight distribution and stability), you should be able to build walls out of many materials.// | //* Like the difference between constructing brick walls to study the stability of rock formations in nature versus the engineering principles of building brick walls: If the principles are well understood (weight distribution and stability), you should be able to build walls out of many materials.// |
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| | ====Is a System Intelligent If ... ==== |
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| | | ...it can really learn //anything//, but it takes the duration of the universe for it to learn each of those things? | Lifetime | |
| | | ...it can only learn one task, but it can get better at it than any other system or controller in the universe? | Generality | |
| | | ...it can only learn one task at a time, and can only learn something else by forgetting what it knew before? | Generality | |
| | | ...it can respond to anything and everything correctly, but always responds too late? | Response Time | |
| | | ...it can learn to do anything //in principle//, but is in principle impossible to implement? | Implementation | |
| | | ...it can learn to do anything //in principle//, but requires as much energy as is available in the whole universe to run? | Implementation | |
| | | ...it can learn and do anything, but it cannot do anything entirely on its own and always requires help from the outside? | Autonomy | |
| | | ...it can learn anything, but it cannot learn whether or not to trust its own abilities? | Autonomy | |
| | | ...it can learn anything, but cannot handle any variation on what it has learned? | Autonomy | |
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| | 2024(c)K. R. Thórisson |
