I love the nonsense people spout. It never ceases to amaze
me. I've been working in AI (robotics, expert systems, etc)
most of my life. I'm currently developing episodic memory
for robot-human interaction at CMU. The system learns from
the episode. By "learning" I mean that it self-modifies so
that it will change its behavior in the future.<p>The people wandering around claiming that AI will take over
the world soon have no idea what they are talking about.
What is actually happening is the second wave of hype in AI.
The first wave, in the 80s, ended up as the "AI Winter"
when people realized that AI was not going to take over the
world. This second "AI Winter" is going to end up causing
another 30 year research desert. People have such short
memories.<p>Here is a way to think about AI. The best known systems are
actually people. Imagine you had invented a person for the
first time. Would it take over the world? Probably. But it
would likely take tens of thousands of years. And this new
"person" would be prone to faults and failures, such as
when it can't remember where it put the keys, because some
of these faults and failures are inherent in the system.<p>I don't fear AI. I fear people who have no idea what they
are talking about who "pump up expectations". Get all the
funding you can now because a new AI Winter is coming.