Artificial Intelligence

…and the Social Implications

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

What is AI?

History and Development of AI

AI in Everyday Life

Human v Artificial Intelligence

The Future

Wider Implications

What is Artificial Intelligence

Term applied when:

a machine mimics the cognitive functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as learning, reasoning and problem-solving

Machine acts as a rational agent

…anything that:

has clear preferences and makes decisions

models uncertainty (by assessing options and variables)

perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal

Rational Agent

1940-50s: Alan Turing began pioneering work into computer intelligence

1956: Dartford College Conference, New Hampshire, US

John McCarthy coined phrase “Artificial Intelligence” and designed/developed LISP programming language

History and Development of AI

McCarthy’s Proposal

“We propose that a 2 month, 10 man study of artificial

intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at

Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The study

is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect

of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in

principle be so precisely described that a machine can be

made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to

make machines use language, form abstractions and

concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans,

and improve themselves”

1952-62: Arthur Samuel wrote first AI game program (checkers)

1950’s-60’s: Semantic nets developed – represents semantic relations between concepts. This is often used as a form of knowledge representation.

History and Development of AI

Semantic Net – simple example

Lisp Semantic Network

(defun *database* ()'((canary (is-a bird)

(color yellow)(size small))

(penguin (is-a bird)(movement swim))

(bird (is-a vertebrate)(has-part wings)(reproduction egg-laying))))

1965: Eliza, one of the first “Chatterbots”

1996: IBM Deep Blue v. Garry Kasparov at chess

History and Development of AI

AI and the Turing Test

Named after Alan Turing

English mathematician/codebreaker

“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human”

• In Turing's test, if human is unable to consistently determine whether an answer has been given by a computer or by another human being, then the computer is considered to have "passed" the test

• Turing’s paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950) - predicted by Year 2000, machines would be capable of fooling 30% of humans after 5mins of questioning

The Turing Test

1960’s Chatterbots

Also known as talkbot, chatbot, bot, chatterbox, Artificial Conversational Entity.

In essence, a computer program that can conduct a conversation with a human via voice recognition/ simulation or textual methods (screen/keyboard).

Chatterbot programs designed to simulate how a human would behave in conversation.

Chatterbots

Chatterbots can use sophisticated language processing systems, but many simpler systems scan for keywords

For example, the word “Mother”

₋ May formulate a response based on known associations within a database

₋ Mother links to family… Response = “Tell me more about your family”

₋ This seems like a human response

Who is Eugene Goostman?

• Competed in a number of Turing Test contests

• June 2012 - 29% judges thought Goostman was human

• June 2014 - 33% judges thought it was human

• Organisers claimed Eugene had passed Turing's test…..

• Chatterbot, developed in St Petersburg, portrayed as 13-yr-old Ukrainian boy

Validity of Goostman's test result called into question:

• 13 yr old expected to lack general knowledge and display

poor grammar etc

• Goostman made use of personality quirks and humour as an

attempt to misdirect users from its non-human tendencies

Artificial Intelligence

in Everyday Life

Online Assistants

Automated online assistants use integrated chatterbot systems….

These can engage in “small talk” and casual conversations unrelated to their primary purpose.

Many large companies (Lloyds Bank, RBS, Renault, Citroën) use automated online assistants to provide a first point of contact with clients rather than call centres.

Google Now, Siri & Cortana

Intelligent digital personal assistants that operate on various platforms.

process huge volumes of data from a variety of sources

learn about their users

become more effective in helping their users organise and track their information.

AI and Digital Personal Assistants

AI in Google Now, Siri and Cortana

These apps collect information on your requests and use that information to :

Better recognize your speech

Deliver the results that are tailored to your

preferences.

Microsoft says Cortana “continually learns about its user” so that it eventually develops the ability to anticipate users’ needs.

Smart Cars

Self-driving cars are becoming reality eg Google’s self-driving car project and Tesla’s “autopilot” car

Tesla plans new truck, bus and car-sharing systems

Algorithms now being developed by Google to enable self-driving cars to learn to drive like humans - through experience

Google will be testing the intelligence used in advanced video games

So that, eventually, car will be able to “look” at the road ahead and make decisions based on what it sees, helping it learn in the process.

Tesla car isn’t this advanced, but it’s already on the road.

Smart Cars

Smart Home Devices

Smart home devices now able to learn behaviour patterns and routines

Can help save money, time and energy usage….

turning your oven on when you leave work

thermostat knows when you’re home and adjusts the temperature accordingly

lights around your home adjust based on where you are and what you’re doing

Potential of AI in smart homes is huge

AI in Medicine

Numerous examples emerging:

Used in clinical decision support systems for medical diagnosis

Computer-aided interpretation of medical images

AI applied to Electromagnetic Radiation Images (EMR/MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT), and by applying knowledge base of typical images can highlight areas of irregularity, such as possible diseases/tumours

Used in heart sound analysis

Drones for recognisance

Developing autonomous weapons that use AI to locate, track and destroy their targets

Some believe these are more efficient, reliable and less flawed than humans. …don’t need sleep, rest, food, recovery… more easily replaced

Could they be developed to be more ethical?

But evidence from drone strikes paints a different picture

Some nations are seeking ban on use of AI as killing machines

AI and RoboticsAI and the Military

AI and RoboticsAI and robotics can be used for positive purposes ...

Autonomous cars predicted to save 30,000 deaths on US roads per year

Make our roads, factories, mines and ports safer & more efficient

Help blind people to explore new environments

Make our lives healthier, wealthier and happier

In military context, AI/robots can be used to clear minefields, bring supplies in through dangerous routes, and analyse huge amounts of data and intelligence.

…..But should they be used to kill?

Human Intelligence

versus

Artificial Intelligence

Possible Pros Possible Cons

Intuition, common sense,judgement, belief systems

Flawed and fallibleCan be irrational, impetuous

Creativity and in novel situations, can apply unrelated knowledge to solve complex problems

Limited knowledge basesUnable to store large amounts of data in memory

Plausible reasoning and critical thinking

Relatively slow at processing data

Effective human to human communicationsTraits - empathy, tenderness

Anger, frustration, jealousy

Emotional intelligence Emotional hurt, revenge

Humans

Possible Pros Possible Cons

Ability to simulate human behaviour and cognitive processes

No common senseCannot easily handle “mixed”knowledge or novel problems

Can capture and preserve human expertise

High development costs

Can capture, store and process large amounts of data rapidly… Good at frequent, high volume tasks

Ethical and moral concerns especially military applications

Non-emotional, objective, rational Legal issues… responsibility/accountability?

Artificial/Computer intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

….The Future

The Future

AI - a radical step change in our technology, limited only by our own imaginations

Autonomous agents - perceive, decide and act on their own

Raises the possibility that AI agents could take unanticipated actions beyond our control

AI - Wider Implications

Smart AI artifacts are increasingly being deployed

Their widespread deployment will have profound consequences for human society:

moral and ethical

psychological

social

economic

legal……… let’s discuss!

Lisp Example of Praise in Response

(defmacro format-ans-str (op-str op1 op2)

`(format t "~%~2d ~a ~2d = " ,op1 ,op-str ,op2))

(defun kudos (op2)

(let ((kudos-str "")

(kudos))

(setf kudos-str

'("~t Well Done!"

"~t Good Job!"

"~t Great!"

"~t Keep it up!"

"~t You're something, you know"))

(setf kudos (nth (random (length kudos-str)) kudos-str ))

(update-mistake-counter op2 -1)

(format t kudos)))

A computer-generated poem, accepted for publication:

A home transformed by the lightning the balanced alcoves smother this insatiable earth of a planet, Earth. They attacked it with mechanical horns because they love you, love, in fire and wind. You say, what is the time waiting for in its spring? I tell you it is waiting for your branch that flows, because you are a sweet-smelling diamond architecture that does not know why it grows.

Magenta, Google’s art app (in the style of Van Gogh?)