June 6, 2006
AI Coming to a Computer Near You in 2014!
Cyberpunk Guru Mac Tonnies over at Posthuman Blues found a poston Better Humans that discusses the potential for developing a singularity by 2014. An AI development company named Novamente is looking for funds to make a massive investment in AI to hasten the development of a singularity:
According to Novamente’s project plan, with proper funding they will have human-level AI in six years. Their goal is to create a learning system that can ultimately be self-improving. By this year or next, they aim to have an autonomous intelligent infant interacting in a simulated world. By 2009 at the latest, they’re aiming for the equivalent of a young child. By 2014, at the far end of the spectrum, they aim to have an AI that can reason abstractly and communicate in complex English. As early as 2010, they may have a “strongly self-modifying AI.” And that, as most readers will know, could kickstart a rush into the Singularity.
While this is pretty cool, one wonders if the bar for a signularlity is being scaled back. If you ask 5 people for a definition of a singularity, rarely will you find any concurrence among the definitions. While I truly wish Novamente all the success possible, I almost wonder whether we would agree with them if they actually declared success.