Artificial intelligence is, or has often seemed, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow – a fantastic and highly-appealing concept that seems always just out of reach no matter how hard one searches for it. As the abundance of science fiction on the topic has proven, people are not entirely optimistic about the likely outcome of the development of artificial intelligence, and yet humankind cannot help but pursue it; it is nearly a divine dream, the power to create not merely life but the same type of life as humanity, which is to say, rational life.
Artificial intelligence, for those who don’t know, is the programming that governs the behavior of machines. Any robot you may encounter is running on artificial intelligence, which typically means a series of instructions about what to do under given circumstances. Artificial intelligence can be very primitive or very complex, depending on the needs of the particular robot. A mechanized crane on a factory floor, for instance, may only need to be able to lift up, lower and swivel at predetermined intervals, whereas a driver-less car must deal with many more factors and would require far greater behavioral instruction.
True artificial intelligence, of course, is currently but a dream in engineers’ eyes, because it is the same as self-aware intelligence, which means a computer that can think for itself. To create something like this would be a breathtaking, world-shifting accomplishment – the practical applications alone are staggering. However, as the aforementioned science fiction has explored, there are serious ethical issues to be considered. Even on a practical level, what if such an intelligence turned on its creators? That self-aware machines should decide they are superior to the humans that made them is not so far-fetched a concept. Whatever its inventions, humankind must make sure it is not undone and swept away by its own starry-eyed creativity.