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The iCub robot tries to catch a ball during the Innorobo European summit, March 2012 Laurent Cipriani/AP/Press Association Images

Artificial intelligence: how close is it to passing the test?

Some scientists believe that we are closer than ever to achieving artificial intelligence in machines – but questions about what intelligence really is remain.

THE QUEST FOR artificial intelligence (AI) began long ago in human history – even earlier than you might think.

The Egyptians were the first people known to discuss the concept of a “thinking machine”, long before the technology we use today existed.

Recently, scientists have said to we could be closer than ever to passing the Turing Test – a method of monitoring the human perception of intelligence in a machine, developed by British mathematician Alan Turing.

In practice, the test involves a panel of human judges who read typed answers to questions addressed to both a computer and a human. If no reliable distinctions between the two answers can be made, the machine may be considered “intelligent”.

Turing reasoned that if a computer could impersonate a human being so well as to be indistinguishable as a machine, it could be said that computer is at least as intelligent as a person.

A brief history of AI

  • In the 1950s, science fiction writer Isacc Asimov, who wrote the Law of Robotics and I Robot, seriously put forward the idea of pursuing the development of AI (“cybernetics”), saying: “Cybernetics is not just another branch of science. It is an intellectual revolution that rivals in importance the earlier Industrial Revolution.”
  • In 1950, Turing published his landmark paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence, which questioned whether machines could think, or possess intelligence. Turing pointed out that the definition of ‘intelligence’ was debatable, and reasoned that if a machine could appear to think just like a human it could be considered intelligent. The Turing test was born.
  • The Dartmouth Summer Research project on Artificial Intelligence, 1956, is now regarded as a seminal event in the field of AI. Many theories about the human race’s future with robots were ventured during the conference, with some insisting that household robots and teaching machines would become commonplace, and that computers would one day dominate our lives.
  • In the mid-1970s, due a series of AI failures, both the British and US governments cut funding to AI programmes. The years that followed are referred to as the ‘AI winter’.
  • With advent of expert systems in the early1980s – a computer system that emulates a human expert’s decision-making ability – funding was reintroduced to AI researchers. Although the success of Japan’s fifth generation computer also spurred more funding, other technological failures soon led to another ‘winter’.
  • The sector picked up again during the 1990s, with notable incidents such as the computer system Deep Blue beating the reigning world champion Garry Kasparov in a game of chess, and continued to build momentum throughout the new millennium.
  • Today, we use much technology that has been developed  from AI research, for example the 3D body–motion interface for the Xbox 360 – although few people would now consider this technology to be ‘intelligent’. Now, as technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, the question what constitutes intelligence is more hotly debated than ever.

Recent advances

Recently, cognitive scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research Robert French wrote in the journal Science that two “revolutionary advances” in information technology could bring the Turing test out of retirement.

The first is the ready availability of vast amounts of raw data — from video feeds to complete sound environments, and from casual conversations to technical documents on every conceivable subject. The second is the advent of sophisticated techniques for collecting, organising, and processing this rich collection of data.

The combination of these advancements means that machines could now answer questions that they were previously unable to by searching for information on the internet.

French says that if a complete record of a person’s life experiences – which help to develop their subcognitive network – were available to a machine, it’s possible that too could develop a similar network and pass the Turing Test.

If a machine could be created that not only analysed data but also mulled over data, this could be described a metacognition, French said, a way humans think and which “helps us build models of the world and manipulate them in our heads”.

French also noted IBM’s recent announcement of the creation of experimental “neurosynaptic” microchips, which are based on the computing principles of neurons found in the human brain – a move he commends, saying that if we are trying to develop machines that think “the human brain is certainly a good place to start.”

Read: ‘Build me a robot’: Irish teen’s challenge to tech community

Read: High-tech project aims to mine asteroids in space

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11 Comments
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    Mute Roy Mitchell
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    Jul 21st 2011, 1:05 PM

    Interesting piece. I hope the author is right about this Dail.
    I really think the Journal should do more pieces like this by first time TDs. It’s give people an insight into what it’s really like in there!

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    Mute Seamus Ryan
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    Jul 21st 2011, 1:14 PM

    Worth reading. Cheers for taking the time to write it, Stephen.

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    Mute Seán Cafferkey
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    Jul 21st 2011, 1:22 PM

    Great column. I always wondered what it was like for a first TD in the Dail

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    Mute Kiki Dee
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    Jul 21st 2011, 1:26 PM

    Very interesting piece Stephen. I really enjoyed reading it. :)

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    Mute Maureen Kelly
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    Jul 21st 2011, 2:05 PM

    Really enjoyed that! Let’s have some more!! How about asking Ming? :)

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    Mute Jeff Rudd
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    Jul 21st 2011, 2:02 PM

    Cheers Stephen. Great writing and eye opening stuff.
    More please?

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    Mute damian
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    Jul 21st 2011, 2:03 PM

    Good article and a nice insight into the day to day workings of the Dail that we rarely get a chance to hear about…

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    Mute Aoife O'Connor
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    Jul 21st 2011, 2:08 PM

    An interesting and enlightening read. Too few TDs realise how little most of us know about what they do and how they do it, so it’s nice to have a little insight.

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    Mute Mark Dennehy
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    Jul 21st 2011, 1:23 PM

    Legislation is complex (often mind bogglingly so). So in order to research and debate legislation properly, you need to know what the legislation is – in advance.

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    Mute sure2bsure
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    Jul 22nd 2011, 5:25 AM

    I’m just curious. I thought legislation was drafted by senior civil servants with the aid of the states legal people. Surely if they need specialist advice they can just pay for it?

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    Mute Mark Dennehy
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    Jul 22nd 2011, 4:25 PM

    Who would you pay to get specialist advice on civilian firearms ownership in Ireland?
    Other than civilian firearms owners (who’ve been trying to give them that advice for free for nearly forty years now), that is.

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    Mute Simon Cunnane
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    Jul 21st 2011, 4:10 PM

    Excellent article.

    I’ve been consistently impressed with Stephen Donnelly since I first saw him on “Tonight With Vincent Browne” last January. He is articulate, knowledgeable and has the qualifications to back up most of what he says. The electorate clearly warmed to that and in four and a half months, it’s very interesting to get this sort of insight into the workings of Dáil Eireann from him.

    More of this from TheJournal.ie please.

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    Mute Noel Carroll
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    Jul 21st 2011, 4:10 PM

    Maybe it’s just me but just because you’re a TD, it doesn’t give journalists the right to ask for your private number, and you have the right to refuse. Who of us in our jobs would gladly give out our private numbers to clients or associates? Who of us would be happy to have a third party volunteer that information after we said no. That journalist needs to be outer as a bulky and as someone who has risen above their station.

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    Mute Noel Carroll
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    Jul 21st 2011, 4:11 PM

    I did mean the journalist should be outed as a bully :).

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    Mute James Gaffney
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    Jul 21st 2011, 6:18 PM

    Politicians and journalists share mobile numbers all the time, it’s a quid pro quo, sometimes politicians want to publicise an issue quickly and like to have instant access to a trusted journalist and vice versa, sometimes a journalist wants to get an instant reaction to a story from a politician, having each other’s mobiles just makes life easier for both parties. Politicians should realise that in this era of mass communications, they have to be accessible to the media. For the record I do give my mobile out to clients and associates and have no problem with it.

    Saying that, I agree with you that it was bad form out of the journalist in question to first of all get his number from a colleague and secondly to whine about it the next day in the paper, talk about a non-story.

    Fair play to Stephen Donnelly, a very interesting piece. I liked your train metaphor, something we can all relate to, and hopefully your comments on the Dáil as an echo chamber will echo loudly around the corridors of power until something is done to improve the situation.

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    Mute Oisín Ó Dálaigh
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    Jul 21st 2011, 3:34 PM

    Thank you for writing what is a really excellent and informative piece, and it confirmed what I thought regarding the true nature of Dáil debate.

    Would love to hear more insights from Stephen as his time serving progresses.

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    Mute Aoife O'Connor
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    Jul 21st 2011, 4:09 PM

    I’d love to know who’s thumbs-downing the people who are basically going “Hmm, that’s interesting, I didn’t know that before” and why they’re doing it.

    Care to leave a comment with your reasons, red-thumb ninjas?

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    Mute Aidan Molloy
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    Jul 21st 2011, 3:25 PM

    Within minutes, he’d got it from another journalist; by that evening, I was being badmouthed in the Dáil bar; and next morning, it was in the paper. Oops. – Stinks of NOTW carry on.

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    Mute Daithi Linnane
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    Jul 21st 2011, 2:00 PM

    Can’t wait to read his inevitable book on Dáil Reform

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    Mute Loraine Byrne
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    Jul 22nd 2011, 5:38 PM

    Well done Stephen, proud to have given you a vote. Everything I’ve seen of your time in the dail has been progressive- including this article- keep up the excellent juggling!

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