from the hype-or-foresight? dept.
Mr_Farlops points out a Red Herring article that debunks predictions by Foresight Advisor Ray Kurzweil and others that within a couple decades computers will exceed human intelligence: Artificial Intelligence? Out of their minds "Here we go again . . . pundits can't stop hyping the business opportunities of artificial intelligence." The article author, Geoffrey James, notes some progress with narrow applications of AI, but claims "there's been virtually no progress toward achieving generalized AI. The science just doesn't add up." He counters Kurzweil's claim that artificial intelligence will be developed by reverse engineering the human brain, with the claim of "William Greenough, one of the world's foremost experts in brain biology and a professor of psychology, psychiatry, and cell and structural biology at the University of Illinois," that the generalized AI proponents greatly underestimate the complexity of the human brain. The skeptics appear to be arguing that more precise knowledge of how the brain works will not lead to understanding how generalized intelligence emerges from brain function.
For a reply by Ray Kurzweil, see A myopic perspective on AI.
