Lesson 2B: The Future Is Here

For a long time now, scientists have been trying to copy human intelligence and make computers think, learn and solve problems as we do. That’s what artificial intelligence, or AI, is all about. The goal is to create a program that can use not only logic, as computer programs do, but also other things involved in decision-making, such as human imagination, feelings and values. But is it possible? Can it be done?

This question goes all the way back to the 1950s. That’s when Alan Turing, an English mathematician known as the father of AI, came up with a test to find out whether machines could think. The Turing test involves a person who asks questions and gets typed answers from both another person and a machine. The test checks whether people can actually tell the difference between the human answers and those of the machine. If they can’t, then that machine can be considered intelligent.

In 2013, a computer program called Eugene Goostman passed the Turing test... Or so its creators say. The program pretended to be a 13-year-old boy from Ukraine during a five-minute typed conversation. It convinced 33% of the judges that it was human, and that was enough for them to say that it had passed the test. However, there are scientists who disagree with this and claim that a five-minute conversation is not enough to make such a decision. But what they all agree on is that the test will be passed at some time in our future.

There has been great progress in the field of AI. It’s everywhere around us. Video games use it. Smart technology, too! Every time digital voice assistants make a mistake when performing a task, they learn from it and improve. The experts call it ‘machine learning’. Social media use AI to monitor dangerous content and false news. Even surgery is becoming more and more robotised. And, while it is true that some human jobs are being lost to machines, many others are being created. It seems that humans and robots will work together in the future, improving and completing one another.