Mirrors on Ourselves

Elaine Rich

A Parable from the Book Lieh Tzu

Book V of the Book of Lieh-Tzü

A book of Taoist teachings from the 3rd century B.C.

Ganesha

The birth of Ganesha

Durga

The birth of Durga

Rabbi Loew and the Golem

The Golem legend from 16th century Prague

Comments on the legend

Pygmalion and Galatea

Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune(Les Métamorphoses d'Ovide, Paris 1806).

Recounted by Ovid in about 5 CE

Homunculi

Paul Struck, Triptychon der klassischen Walpurgisnacht, Faust IIv. J.W.Goethe, 1975/76, linker Außenflügel

The NightingaleWritten in 1844 by Hans Christian Anderson

Vaucanson’s Duck

1739

Vaucanson’s Automata

Edison’s Talking Doll

1888

The Turk

The Turk

• Built by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734 – 1804).

The Turk• Constructed and unveiled in 1770 to

impress the Austro-Hungarian Empress Marie-Theresa.

• Toured Europe and America for 85 years.

• Destroyed by fire in 1852.

• The secret unveiled in 1857.

The Turk

How it worked:

Exploited:

• Levers

• Magnets

• A candle

A Modern Reconstruction

Built by John Gaughan. First displayed in 1989. Controlled by a computer. Uses the Turk’s original chess board.

Chess Today

In 1997, Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov.

Does This Mean It’s Curtains for Humans?

How much do you need to know to play chess?

How Much Computation Does it Take?

• Middle game branching factor: about 35.

• Lookahead required to play master level chess: about 8.

• 358 21012.

Ambrose Bierce

1842 – 1914?

The Devil’s Dictionary

• Bore – A person who talks when you wish him to listen.

• Cannon – An instrument employed in the rectification of national

boundaries.• Cat 

– A soft indestructible automaton provided by Nature to be kicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle.

• Christian – One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired

book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.

REEM-A

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1212

What is Artificial Intelligence?

A.I. is the study of how to make computers do things that people are better at or would be better at if they could extend what they do to a world wide web-sized amount of data and not make mistakes.

How Will We Recognize AI?1950 Alan Turing’s paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, described what is now called “The Turing Test”. http://www.abelard.org/turpap/turpap.htm

1990 Loebner Prize established. Grand Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal for the first computer whose responses are indistinguishable from a human.

The Origins of AI Hype

1950 Turing predicted that in about fifty years "an average interrogator will not have more than a 70 percent chance of making the right identification after five minutes of questioning".

1957 Newell and Simon predicted that "Within ten years a computer will be the world's chess champion, unless the rules bar it from competition."

Was Turing Right?

Jabberwacky: Have you been to the Moon?User: No. Few have. Have you?Jabberwacky: Many a time my dear chap!User: What was the most interesting thing you saw?Jabberwacky: Fred.User: Why did you find him interesting?Jabberwacky: It just came into my head.User: What sorts of things do you generally find interesting?Jabberwacky: Nothing but smelly socks.

A conversation with Jabberwacky, 2003

Another One

A Conversation with Alice, 2004

>What's the best place to eat Chinese food?

ALICE: My favorite places are California and Maine. Holland is cool too.

>What do you like about Maine?

ALICE: The special effects are the best.

http://www.alicebot.org/

Alice, Again

>Who invented paper towels?

ALICE: The Chinese, long before Europeans.

>Who invented pet rocks?

ALICE: The Wright Brothers.

>Who invented Barbie dolls?

ALICE: Thomas Edison.

Alice Again

A Conversation with Alice, January 2005

Human: Isn't the tsunami thing sad?ALICE: If it is, then I'll be very surprised.

Human: but it is.ALICE: Umm. Huh.Human: Over a hundred thousand people have died.ALICE: Does "it" still refer to the tsunami thing sad?

Human: yesALICE: Blimey.

Let’s Chat with Bots

• Alice

• Jabberwacky

• Elbot

Machine Translation Today

Austin Police are trying to find the person responsible for robbing a bank in Downtown Austin.

El policía de Austin está intentando encontrar a la persona responsable de robar un banco en Austin céntrica.

The police of Austin is trying to find the responsible person to rob a bank in centric Austin.

Common Sense Reasoning

Mary was excited when she found out that Sue had invited her to her birthday party. She wondered whether she should get her the new Harry Potter book.

Mary was excited when she found out that Sue had invited her to her birthday party. She wondered whether she would like the new Harry Potter book.

Rossum’s Universal Robots

A play by Karel Čapek, 1920

The Three Laws of Robotics

1942

The Three Laws of Robotics

• A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

• A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

• A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Are We Special?

Consciousness

Me You

The Difference Between Us and Them

Aaron

Should We Do It?

The Luddites, 1812

A Calmer Vision

Kurzweil’s Vision

With Folded Hands

http://ia300118.us.archive.org/2/items/Dimension-X/Dimx_e002_WithFoldedHands.MP3

1951

1956

1986

2004