I have been spending an inordinate amount of time recently exploring the current boundaries of AI and mostly what I see in the media is a bunch of hype and half-assed assertions that are based on our associations with sci-fi rather than science.
One area that AI is largely ignoring is the whole definition of intelligence and what it means to call something “intelligent”. Current AI systems are incredibly good at being computers - they are wicked fast doing computations and cognitive analysis of large datasets. It’s even very good at certain predictive analysis such as forecasting and pattern correlation dealing with a huge number of variable. Things that humans could never do on their own.
But a computer will never be a human. Never. So artificial human is not even in consideration among serious researchers. So artificial intelligence = human intelligence is exactly the wrong comparison.
If you really want to explore some cutting edge shit, check out what the MIT Media lab is doing in the area of artificial emotional intelligence. Emotions are on the other side of the human coin with cognition so current AI is only looking at half the picture. Making computer systems emotionally aware will fundamentally change the way humans interact with computers. This is actually happening right now.
