Language

Programming languages are predefined and do not change without human intervention over time, they do not “share” vocabulary between languages. Human languages evolve and change over time, which includes the adoption of phrases and words from various languages. The largest difference between these kinds of language is how they are expressed and interpreted: human language can be expressed by voice, sign, expression, etc, and are similarly interpreted by humans. While programming languages are designed to express any variety of outputs which are defined in the code itself and can be expressed as such by computers, while being simply “read” by humans.

Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) and learning are more closely related, and less subjective than human intelligence and learning. If we ascribe intelligence to a machine we can say that it completes a given task without prescriptive orders, and does so through machine learning. We would be remiss to make the same connections about human intelligence – how/what/that a human learns does not necessarily indicate a level of intelligence. Additionally, human intelligence can be said to be more complex than simply solving a problem and may include emotion, and self and social awareness.

Learning

Machines don’t know that they learn (yet). Machine learning (ML) is an area of AI regarding the development of algorithms that allow computers to detect patterns in provided data. While classic computer programming involves writing code to tell a computer how to perform a task, ML provides only a model or an algorithm which allows the computer to determine how to complete said task. Human learning can also be described as relating to pattern detection and data input for task completion, but I think very few would limit its understanding and complexity by using this kind of language.

Turing Test

I don’t think the answers to these questions greatly differ from what a machine could generate, given the appropriate input to that machine. The generation of my answers do include more contextual information than what could be input into a machine – I have a more nuanced sense of what the expectations are and how these questions fit into the context of the ETEC course. Perhaps my answers, as a person with a certain style of writing and knowledge in the area might be distinguishable by a human who knows my writing. However, given appropriate models and time, I think there are enough advancements in artificial intelligence that could generate responses indistinguishable to a human, and perhaps even this human.

In fact, there are two versions of this piece – A and B. One was written by me (a bona fide human), another was generated using some free online AI systems … can you tell the difference?

References

The AI systems used:

• https://app.inferkit.com/demo
• https://narrative-device.herokuapp.com/createstory