/sci/ - Science & Math

https://www.pcmag.com/news/361929/why-everything-elon-musk-fears-about-ai-is-wrong
>Cognitive scientist Piero Scaruffi argues that artificial intelligence is still in its Stone Age, and suggests that Elon Musk should worry more about biotech than AI

>Why do you feel Elon Musk, et al, are wrong to fear AI?
>...There are dangers in the way we deploy and use technology, whether it's nuclear power or computers. Why should we worry more about AI than we should about nuclear weapons? Or about the very conventional and very dumb networks of computers that control the global financial markets? The AI that I know is a fascinating field of research, a branch of computational mathematics [but] unfortunately it is still in its Stone Age

>If, in your opinion, AI isn't intelligent at all, because nothing artificial can actually be intelligent, what would you call the field itself? Merely advanced computation with super fast processors?
>Yes, the AI that I know is a branch of computational mathematics. That's really all there is to it: math. And it's not even that difficult. Compared with the equations of theoretical physics, which is what my university thesis was on, computational math is not that complicated. It was basically invented in 1936 by Turing, so it is only 80 years old.

>Finally, in your opinion, how far are we from truly intelligent machines, or is that just the wrong question?
>Yes, it's the wrong question. That's why I titled my book Intelligence is not Artificial. If a discipline can build an intelligent being, it will be biotech, and it sounds like they are really close. I see machines as useful, not intelligent. They can simulate many aspects of the human brain and, in very narrow domain, they—from the clock to AlphaZero—can perform a lot better. One can put together many many many apps and get the equivalent of a general-purpose intelligence, but it still not intelligence to me. I think that Elon Musk should worry a lot more about biotech than about AI.