• Question: @all Do you think AI could ever become sentient and fully merge in our society?

    Asked by anon-183907 to Tom, sarahhodge, Owen, Nathan, Lorna, Abbie on 5 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Nathan Hook

      Nathan Hook answered on 5 Nov 2018:


      Personally I accept the ideas of Alan Turing, who proposed the Turing Test and the Turing machine. Every computer that can every exist is merely a limited version of a Turing machine – including our own brains. Therefore, if we assume that we ourselves are sentient then it follows we could build a Turing machine that could achieve sentience – unless you believe there is something magical about us such as a ‘soul.’

      However, it’s possible we might not have the mental capacity to comprehend the mind well enough to build such a machine. In the same way as a cat will never comprehend it’s own brain, the same might be true of us. We can keep working on it, but we can not be certain we will ever reach that point.

      As for how society will accept since an AI, that is a widely social question beyond the ability of science to answer. You may like to look up the concept of ‘uncanny valley’ – essentially something which is ‘almost but not quite’ is actually very disturbing to people.

    • Photo: Sarah Hodge

      Sarah Hodge answered on 5 Nov 2018:


      Good question, I think we have a desire to make things like us but currently I am not sure that we could (or would want to) reach that point where AI is sentient and fully merged into soctiey

    • Photo: Abbie Jordan

      Abbie Jordan answered on 5 Nov 2018:


      I agree that I think we will develop even further with our knowledge about AI and how we can implement it to be useful. I know that it is feared by some of course (as the unknown often is). but, I agree with Sarah that I don’t think I would want AI to ever fully merge into our society and sentient.

    • Photo: Tom Gallagher-Mitchell

      Tom Gallagher-Mitchell answered on 6 Nov 2018:


      There’s some really interesting work going on in this area at the moment. One example is use of on screen avatars to train people with autism in their recignition of emotions in faces. One of the other uses linked to AI is the use of hologram type technology where we can project a person into another space and then interact with them. Imperial college London are making use of this for some of their lectures.

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