When we use the words artificial intelligence, we typically mean artificial machine intelligence, training machines to act like human beings. What is actually happening is the opposite - we are developing artificial human intelligence, as in, humans are being trained to think like machines.
Example 1: I recently called a cab company and told them I was at Union Square. The despatcher was taking a long time to respond, and eventually asked me whether I am in the east or west side of Manhattan. MIffed, I wondered how it is possible to not know where Union Square is. The guy explained that the system required him to enter an exact address.
When we didn't have the intelligent software, the cab drivers responded to Union Square, or an exact address, or a set of cross streets, or whichever way the passengers choose to describe their locations. Now, we must figure out what the software knows, and then speak to it in its language. After many years of such training, I doubt that these despatchers can locate Grand Central on a map!
Example 2: You call the customer service line of your bank, and get to talk to the intelligent service agent (a bot). She asks you to explain your need. You speak to her as if speaking to a human. She doesn't understand you, and wants you to try again. After a few fruitless exchanges, you learn that the only way to get through to her is to figure out her vocabulary. She only understands maybe several dozen words. So you map your real need to the "nearest neighbor" in the space of the bot's vocabulary. Next time, you call the same bank, you start using the bot's vocabulary.
Example 3: I have observed how some students learn coding. Their lifeline is Google which leads them to StackExchange or similar Q-and-A websites. They find the code they want, and copy and paste it to their screens. They press the Run button. It fails, with an error message. Suspecting that the error may have to do with the placement of a parenthesis, they move the parenthesis to a different spot. They press Run again. It fails again. They move the parenthesis to a third spot, and press Run. It fails again. Eventually, it is in the right slot and the program runs. This brute-force, try-all-possibilities paradigm is frequently used by machines because they can run calculations really fast. Now, humans are learning in the same way.
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Alarm has been raised over the possibility that machines will eventually control humans. This is possible if humans adopt artificial human intelligence, that is to say, learn to think like machines.
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