Logistics of Artificial Intelligence

This was written by my friend Ben Weber.

Artificial intelligence is a concept seen in movies, TV shows, and online. Truly, our society isn't that far away from creating artificial intelligence. The whole concept of artificial intelligence is a machine being able to think for itself which would involve very complicated quantum mechanics to explain so I'm not going to go into that. The main concept would be that the machine needs to not only think and act for itself, but it would need to be able to learn and would need to want to learn. The machine itself would need to be able to perform the same functions that the human brain preforms, this includes taking in information, processing information, and using this information in other tasks. The main goal would be for a computer or A.I. system to fully understand that it is a computer and to be able to program itself to a higher level of A.I. which would, in effect, give the computer a mind of its own. All forms of A.I. start out as a complex command that slowly becomes less complicated until it is a simple one string command. So in order to create A.I. you would have to create a machine/code system that could not only follow the string of commands laid out, but create higher levels of this command to make things work better, easier, and faster. For example if a computer was programmed to play tic-tac-toe it would get the commands:

1. If someone has a "threat" (that is, two in a row), take the remaining square. Otherwise,
2. if a move "forks" to create two threats at once, play that move. Otherwise,
3. take the center square if it is free. Otherwise,
4. if your opponent has played in a corner, take the opposite corner. Otherwise,
5. take an empty corner if one exists. Otherwise,
6. take any empty square.

These commands would be in the form of code. The A.I. would come into this when the computer would be able to add a step before step number one, effectively making its strategy better without having a human be the creator of this better strategy. This would also involve the computer playing the game against itself to determine a better way to win.

One of the biggest problems when it comes to A.I. is that you want the computer to be able to think, process, and react the same way a human would to any situation it faces. The reason this is a problem is because code gives computers direct things to do in specific situations so in order for A.I. to work you would need to have a computer that could improvise and adapt according to the problem that it faces. This would also mean that the computer would have to be able to continue operating and trying to solve a problem even without all the information and it would have to be able to figure out that it didn't have all the information and then search for the missing information.

Another problem comes into play when you think about the way that humans think about the results of their actions by predicting the future based on actions they are about to do. A computer would have to have this same idea of planning ahead, it would have to be able to predict what its actions will do and predict the results of other actions that it could do in place of the first thought action. The computer would also have to be able to set goals, calculate a path to complete the goal, and then follow that path until in completes the goal. Effectively making the computer be able to do close to the same things that a human brain could do and be able to upgrade itself with the goal of being able to do something it would not have been able to do before.