sparks wrote:Computers do not learn. They simply process information based on a well defined set of instructions.
Learning would require an independent goal.
They do not have such. And it cannot be programmed for them by others.
We will get very much better at a simulation of intelligence, but our creations will never ... think for themselves.
You're in deep waters there, sparky.
First let me state that computers/AI/robots don't have to "think" (whatever that means), they just have – and if I remember well, that was one of the points of the vid in the OP – to be
good enough at their tasks. Driving cars better than the average Joe. Mixing or writing music better than the average Joe. Playing chess, or go, better than the average Joe (or even Grand Masters

). Prattling small talk better than the average Joe (and that's the Turing test in a nutshell).
Some here addressed the point, so perhaps you're now convinced that computers can effectively learn. The "set of instructions" is of course "well defined", but you are conflating levels: the fixed part is just like an OS for the AI (or the blood/chemicals allowing our brains to work), inside of that there are parameters (lots of parameters) or even code (for genetic algorithms) which get fine-tuned, for the task at hand, essentially by trial and error. Like good old nature (what a bitch), just faster.
As for the goal, I should hope that
we set that. I think a good example would be the annual DARPA contest, where vehicles have to travel as fast as possible (and without crashing, of course) from some point A to some point B through rough terrain. The goal is clear, the zillions of local decisions are up to the machine.
Your last point, about the "simulation of intelligence", seems philosophical to me as I can see no clear border between unintelligent/intelligent. (That's the strength of the Turing test as it dismisses "internalities", consciousness, intelligence even, &c.) To put it slightly unpleasantly: if your lifelong partner simulates love unerringly, won't you accept it as the real thing?
