Re: Gene-engineer superhumans? (was: Re: Selfish Reason To Preserve Chimps)

From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Sun Dec 02 2001 - 20:50:38 MST


"G.P." wrote:
>
> Well on both sides of the ocean there is private and public funding
> for AI. Maybe not as much as for genetic engineering, but I would not
> say zero. Perhaps you do not consider the applications that do get
> funding, e.g. face recognition, translation, missile guidance, etc. as
> Real AI, as in human equivalent or higher sentient systems. But don't
> you think current "baby AI" projects can develop components that may
> be usefully integrated when the technology for Real AI is available?

Personally, not really. These seem to be more like simply software
applications that are being developed using tools and techniques that
were developed (like neural networks) back when scientists were really
trying to think of ways to develop Real AI. Having a windoze box that
can recognize faces in an airport is not getting us any closer to having
a real thinking machine. Nowadays there is very little effort going into
looking for new ways to achieve Real AI.

>
> On Fri, 30 Nov 2001 02:30:53 -0500, Brian Atkins <brian@posthuman.com>
> wrote:
>
> >How many millions/billions $ are going into biotech and related fields
> >right now? Lots. And how many are going into developing Real AI ? Zero.
> >I don't think we are in any danger yet of spending too much on AI
> >development. Right now, the eggs are all in the BIO basket AFAICS.
>
> ---
> G.P.
> gdotpdot@newsguy.com

-- 
Brian Atkins
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
http://www.singinst.org/



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