CRIS hosts panel discussion on artificial intelligence and its potential
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more prominent in culture, but many of the implications of AI are unknown. This is why the Center for Research in Science (CRIS) decided to host a panel discussion to talk about the consequences that may come with AI and other similar inventions.
Students and faculty alike filled the lecture hall in Segerstrom Science Center on March 21, eager to hear what each of the panelists had to say regarding the potential effects of AI.
“When I first saw the posters for What Is Intelligence, I thought ‘Yes! This is what I’ve wanted to know all semester,” said sophomore biology major Megan Thomas. “Then I realized that it was directed more for AI, but I was still interested. So, I have been planning on attending all semester.”
The panel that directed the discussion consisted of Bill Newsome of the Stanford University School of Medicine, Nancey Murphy from Fuller Seminary, and APU’s own Dan Grissom. Each panelist gave a brief introduction on the subject from the perspectives of their fields.
Newsome spoke on intelligence from a neurobiological point of view, Murphy did the same from a philosophical view and Grissom shared the inner workings of artificial intelligence from the computer science world.
Grissom explained the concept of AI, from a computer science and programming perspective, is to try to make a machine think and act like people would. In order to do this, the programmer would think of the strategy used to solve a particular problem and then use code to program the machine with the correct set of information.
“AI is really all about the search, and it’s all about programming not just the solutions that are easy for me to solve in my head, but it’s about taking a step back and saying ‘how am I solving this problem?’ and then taking that ‘how’ and programming that instead of the ‘hey, look, I solved it,’” Grissom said. “That takes a lot of self-reflection and taking a really deep look at ‘what did I do? What did my brain do? What are the 10 steps that I skipped over when I thought I knew how I was doing it?’”
Grissom used an example of a large maze. While it would take a person an extended period of time to exhaust all the options one by one, a computer using AI would be able to look at all the options simultaneously and find the route that works.
Newsome said that it is entirely possible that AI could potentially reach the same capacity that is found in the human brain. He gave the example of taking out a single nerve cell out of the brain, then replacing that with an artificial nerve cell which works exactly the same, and nothing would change. If you follow the natural progression, the entire brain would be made of artificial nerve cells and be working entirely the same way as an organic brain, and the person who owns that brain would still be the same person.
“It is not crazy to imagine artificial systems, one day, that have human-like intelligence. It’s not the molecules that the brain is made of that matters, it is the way that they are organized, the way that the information flows that matters,”Newsome said. “If we can ever recreate that kind of information flow artificially, then I think we would have real, human intelligence in an artificial system.”
Murphy disagreed with Newsome’s point about the person continuing to be who they were while having an artificial brain.
“My intuition, which I cannot substantiate, goes in the opposite direction,” Murphy said. “It is just one of those points where it comes down to asking a person ‘well, what is your intuitive take on this?’ If there were a good argument on one side or the other, then it would be something that a philosopher had pretty darn well know about. But I don’t think we have such a thing at this point.”
The discussion, held during the of Brain Awareness Week, which is observed across the world, inspired students to look further into the potential effects and possibilities surrounding artificial intelligence.
“I think it is a really interesting topic and I definitely see it being something that is present in our future, just because of where science is and where technology and things are evolving,” said Alyssa Covert, a senior psychology major. “It is definitely something I want to look into more just because of how relevant it is.”