Comment by encrux
19 hours ago
Not really on topic anymore, but…
I keep wondering when this discussion comes up… If I take an apple and paint it like an orange, it’s clearly not an orange. But how much would I have to change the apple for people to accept that it’s an orange?
This discussion keeps coming up in all aspects of society, like (artificial) diamonds and other, more polarizing topics.
It’s weird and it’s a weird discussion to have, since everyone seems to choose their own thresholds arbitrarily.
I feel like these examples are all where human categorical thinking doesn’t quite map to the real world. Like the “is a hotdog a sandwich” question. “hotdog” and “sandwich” are concepts, like “intelligence”. Oftentimes we get so preoccupied with concepts that we forget that they’re all made-up structures that we put over the world, so they aren’t necessarily going to fit perfectly into place.
I think it’s a waste of time to try and categorize AI as “intelligent” or “not intelligent” personally. We’re arguing over a label, but I think it’s more important to understand what it can and can’t do.
Superficially? Looks like an orange, feels like an orange, tastes like an orange. Basically it passes something like the Turing test.
Scientifically? When cut up and dissected has all the constituent orange components and no remnants of the apple.