What to Think About Machines That Think: Today's Leading Thinkers on the Age of Machine Intelligence (Edge Question Series)

For today’s younger generation, the world has been turned upside down. Rather than deploying an automaton to free them to think big thoughts, have close relationships, and exercise their individuality, creativity, and freedom, they look to their smartphones for guidance. What began as Internet technologies enabling their users to share preferences

AIs will be “born” as individuals, not as members of a tribe, and will be born with the nonviolent scientific attitude, otherwise they’d be incapable of adapting to the extreme environments of space.

All (awake) animals are, to a greater or lesser extent, aware of the world they inhabit and the objects it contains.

All animals, to some degree or other, manifest cognitive integration, which is to say they can bring all their mental resources—perceptions, memories, and skills—to bear on the ongoing situation in pursuit of their goals.

Machines that think are evolving just as Darwin told us about the living (and thinking) biological species—through competition, combat, cooperation, survival, and reproduction.

No living species seem to be optimal for survival beyond the natural planetary and stellar time scales.

The recent successes are being driven by cheap computer power and plentiful training data.

Will they have consciousness?

Very soon, the distinction between artificial and natural will melt away.

Progress toward the “Singularity” (AI matching or surpassing humans) will almost certainly take place, since the development of advanced AI has the promise of producing enormous profits. On the other hand, the search for life requires funding at a level that can usually be provided only by large national space agencies, with no immediate prospects