We don't understand AI because we don't understand intelligence
Artificial intelligence prophets including Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Raymond Kurzweil predict that by the year 2030 machines will develop consciousness through the application of human intelligence. This will lead to a variety of benign, neutral and terrifying outcomes. For example, Musk, Hawking and dozens of other researchers signed a petition in January 2015 that claimed AI-driven machines could lead to "the eradication of disease and poverty" in the near future. This is, clearly, a benign outcome.
And then there's the neutral result: Kurzweil, who first posited the idea of the technological singularity, believes that by the 2030s people will be able to upload their minds, melding man with machine. On the terrifying side of things, Musk envisions a future where humans will essentially be house cats to our software-based overlords, while Kurzweil takes it a step further, suggesting that humans will essentially be eradicated in favor of intelligent machines.
These claims are not ludicrous on their own. We've seen rapid advancements in technology over the past decades; we know computers are growing more powerful and more accessible by the month. Already in 2011, a supercomputer named Watson won a game of Jeopardy against two former champions, using a mixture of AI and all-important natural-language processing. The future is here and it may soon outstrip us.
read more at: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/15/technological-singularity-problems-brain-mind/
very interesting subject
I think Kurzweil's timeline is far too ambitious. 2030 is about 13 years away and I see absolutely no signs of all the prerequisite technology coming even close to the capacity required to hold a human consciousness.
I doubt we will even have a full enough understanding of the neural processing to replicate a rat by 2030. I think we'll get there someday just not that soon.
My prediction is by 2030 they will be perfecting virtual reality sex appliances not conscious AI.
I agree with your last line... we are just animals, slaves to our instincts whether we acknowledge it or not, after all..
Whatever they may call it, human intelligence could not be replace by AI, no way, there's just no way. Robots may think like humans but that thought is on a straight line.