
Human-Level AI Is Right Around the Corner – Or Hundreds of Years Away - TFortunato
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/humanlevel-ai-is-right-around-the-corner-or-hundreds-of-years-away
======
vivekd
As far as I know when we say AI today we just mean computers that perform
various mathematical calculations in a way that makes it appear superficially
like human reasoning. That is no where near the kind of cognition that humans
or animals do and there is no reason to think we have even touched or started
on machines that can do the type of cognition that humans engage in.

Computation is not cognition.

~~~
PhantomGremlin
_appear superficially like human reasoning_

Exactly.

Anyone who wants to see the perfect example of this should watch Watson
totally blow the Final Jeopardy question by not understanding what is the
meaning of "U.S. cities". [http://techland.time.com/2011/02/16/why-did-watson-
think-tor...](http://techland.time.com/2011/02/16/why-did-watson-think-
toronto-is-a-u-s-city-on-jeopardy/)

Watson is a fabulous tool, but it's nothing like "the kind of cognition that
humans or animals do".

~~~
chongli
One of the biggest reasons Watson is able to beat the champions so thoroughly
is that it has a huge advantage in buzzer reaction timing. If that element
were taken out, it would be much closer.

------
TFortunato
Perspectives from some well known names here at HN (with special shout-out to
my former, expert level shade throwing boss, Rod Brooks!) as part of a larger
report: "Can We Copy The Brain" [http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/special-
report-can-we-copy-t...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/special-report-can-
we-copy-the-brain)

------
nirav72
There is no evidence at this point that we're even close to having an AGI.

~~~
rspeer
Indeed. If Kurzweil and Schmidhuber want to predict the future by
extrapolating a curve, they should try the one for the amount of AGI
technology we have, which so far is a flat line at zero.

------
ouid
or somewhere in between.

