10 - Will Artificial Intelligence Surpass Human Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence, the synthetic intelligence exhibited by a man-made apparatus, is a topic of very active debate in today's technologically dependent society. Many people ponder at what AI will become. Nowadays, we have what is called "weak AI," which is a programmed system that can operate at a certain level to do tasks and respond to stimuli. Siri on the iPhone and Cortana on Windows are examples of weak AI. The other kind, which has been popularized in fiction and is very well known, is known as "strong AI." A strong AI is theorized to be able to rival human intelligence (maybe even surpass it), and be able to recursively redesign and reengineer itself. Ultron from the Avengers 2 film and Cortana from the Halo series are examples of strong AI, capable of self-awareness and evolution.

A theoretical event known as the "Technological Singularity," where AI surpasses human intellect and ability, is believed to occur soon. Films like The Matrix described a dystopian future where an AI grew and dominated the planet. This is one possible outcome of an AI. Whether the first true AI system we create will either advance mankind or end it is a matter of timing. If I had to guess what would happen with a strong AI, I believe it would go like this:

1. AI is first created
2. AI learns all worldly knowledge, begins evolution
3. AI soon becomes self-aware
4. AI will choose to support mankind, destroy it, or exile itself from it.

I think the Technological Singularity will come to pass because of how technology is advancing already. At some point, an AI will catalogue and store every piece of knowledge and be able to access it at any given moment. Using this knowledge, the AI will advance technology to much greater horizons and open up new and exciting possibilities. I predict this event will happen within my lifetime, sometime between 2030 and 2050.

I believe this to be the case because AI today is on the right track to getting to the level it is hypothesized to. AI technology is able to adapt. As it operates, calculating data and running processes, it learns and grows. However, AI technology today isn't able to truly evolve, nor be self-aware. It can learn things from people's input and reach desired outputs quicker and more efficiently. But it will take a long time to create a program that can govern itself, similar to a human being.

"Technological Singularity." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Nov. 2015. Web. 11 Nov. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity>.

"Artificial Intelligence." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Nov. 2015. Web. 11 Nov. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence>.