Who Were They?

Alan Turing…

was the “father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence” (“Alan Turing”, 2022). He invented the Turing machine which was “capable of implementing any computer algorithm” (“Turning machine”, 2022), and worked with British Intelligence to help crack the ciphers being used by German submarines during the Second World War. He proposed the Turing test as a way of determining if a machine could be called intelligent if a human could not tell it apart from a person during a conversation (“Alan Turing”, 2022).

John McCarthy…

was a computer and cognitive scientist who was a pioneer of AI and discovered Lisp programming language, which is a “became the favored programming language for artificial intelligence” (“Lisp”, 2022). Without his work in time-sharing systems, now known as servers, “[t]he internet would not have happened nearly as soon as it did” (“John McCarthy”, 2022). He believed that machines could have beliefs, which is “a characteristic of most machines capable of problem-solving performance” (“John McCarthy”, 2022).

Herb Simon…

was a political scientist who “was a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence” (“Herbert A. Simon”, 2022). He is a co-creator of the Logic Theory Machine, which was the “first artificial intelligence program” (“Logic Theorist”, 2022). It was used “to define, approach and solve problems” (DeepAI, n.d.) through algorithms. Simon believed that learning takes place by “simple chunks of information form[ing] the building blocks” (“Herbert A. Simon”, 2022) of more complex ideas.

Marvin Minsky…

was a computer scientist and co-founder of MIT’s AI laboratory. He built the first learning machine in 1951, and wrote a book that “became the foundational work in the analysis of artificial neural networks” (“Marvin Minsky”, 2022). He co-founded the Society of Mind theory, which views intelligence as “step by step, built up […] interactions of simple parts […] which are themselves mindless” (“Society of Mind”, 2022).

Timnit Gebru…

is a computer scientist whose work has primarily focused her career on “diversity in technology” (“Timnit Gebru”, 2022). She is the co-founder of Black in AI, an organisation that “increases the presence and inclusion of Black people in the field of artificial intelligence” (“Black in AI”, 2022). She is on a quest for ethical artificial intelligence – one which is created without systemic racism built into its’ foundations.

Machine vs Human: Language

Human language, no matter which one is being spoken, is more than just the words. We use our tone of voice, our facial expressions, and our bodies to convey the full message – as Harris (2018) says, “languages are much defined by the physical attributes of human bodies” (para. 11).

As Harris (2018) points out, machine languages, while having variations in the different types of programming, cannot evolve. Unlike human languages that are always changing, programming language “rules and definitions were designed beforehand, which allows for them to be fully described and studied in their entirety” (Harris, 2018, para. 9).

 

Machine vs Human: Intelligence

There are many ways to look at this question, and all of it depends on the definition of ‘intelligence’ that we are to be comparing. In terms of information gathering and computational intelligence, a computer will be able to accomplish the tasks in a faster, more efficient way than a human. However, emotional intelligence is not something that computers have been able to master just yet, though artificial intelligences have been able to convincingly copy emotions.

Ultimately, as Pedamkar (n.d.) points out, we are prudent to remember that human intelligence is about adapting to our surroundings while AIs are built to mimic our ability to do that.

 

Machine vs Human: Learning

Humans learn through experience. From the moment we are born, we are in a space of acquiring knowledge. We learn about our familial and societal structures and language through interactions. We are immersed in curriculums for our formative years and continue to learn beyond that through work and play, following our passions and curiosities.

Machines collect information and build an understanding based on an algorithm that is programmed into it. While it can ‘learn’ more than a human can by sheer capacity, it is a predetermined programming that the learning is based on, which it cannot go beyond without instruction to do so.

 

Formulating My Answers

For the information on the people in #1, I had to research most of them, having never heard of 3 out of 5 (thank you, The Imitation Game, and curiosity about BIPOC and women’s issues in the world). While responding to questions like the three questions about machine versus humans, I formulate my answer based on experience first before I do any research. This allows me to connect with the work more than if I were to regurgitate what I’ve read. Once I have a foundation, I find support for it. Occasionally, information will come out that will contradict what I thought, and I’ll have to amend my writing after reading up on it more, but for the most part… not to sound like I’m tooting my own horn… I’m on the right track.

Unless forced to, I like to use my voice in my writing. Could a computer generate this? Of course. If a computer has access to all my writing, personal and published, then it will get a handle on the nuances of my narrative voice, producing something close. However, I do take creative liberties in some of my writing that a machine would likely correct if it had the chance to.

 

References

Alan Turing. (2022, September 25). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

DeepAI. (n.d.). Automated Reasoning. https://deepai.org/machine-learning-glossary-and-terms/automated-reasoning

Black in AI. (2022, June 30). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_in_AI

Harris, A. (2018, October 31). Human languages vs Programming languages. Medium. https://medium.com/@anaharris/human-languages-vs-programming-languages-c89410f13252

Hao, K. (2020, December 7). We read the paper that forced Timnit Gebru out of google. here’s what it says. MIT Technology Review.  https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/04/1013294/google-ai-ethics-research-paper-forced-out-timnit-gebru

Herbert A. Simon. (2022, September 9). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_A._Simon

John McCarthy (computer scientist). (2022, August 18). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCarthy_(computer_scientist)

Lisp (programming language). (2022, September 26) In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_(programming_language)

Logic Theorist. (2022, July 25). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_Theorist

Marvin Minsky. (2022, August 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky

Pedamkar, P. (n.d.). Artificial Intelligence vs Human Intelligence. eduCBA. https://www.educba.com/artificial-intelligence-vs-human-intelligence/

Society of Mind. (2022, August 20). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind

Timnit Gebru. (2022, August 11). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timnit_Gebru

Turing machine. (2022, September 7). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_machine