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Artifictional Intelligence: Against Humanity's Surrender to Computers
Recent startling successes in machine intelligence using a technique called ‘deep learning’ seem to blur the line between human and machine as never before. Are computers on the cusp of becoming so intelligent that they will render humans obsolete? Harry Collins argues we are getting ahead of ourselves, caught up in images of a fantastical future dreamt up in fictional portrayals. The greater present danger is that we lose sight of the very real limitations of artificial intelligence and readily enslave ourselves to stupid the ‘Surrender’. By dissecting the intricacies of language use and meaning, Collins shows how far we have to go before we cannot distinguish between the social understanding of humans and computers. When the stakes are so high, we need to set the bar to rethink ‘intelligence’ and recognize its inherent social basis. Only if machine learning succeeds on this count can we congratulate ourselves on having produced artificial intelligence.
- GenresArtificial Intelligence
232 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 30, 2018
6 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 28, 2019
Brilliant insight into what makes us human - our sociality, how language is embedded in social community and how human cognition, expertise, understanding, and intelligence are social accomplishments. What humans can do that machines can't do, despite the advances that A.I. has made, is all about the way in which human beings are social beings, what Collins calls 'socialness' and how this allows us to engage in polimorphic action. An important and profound book, written in Collins' accessible and amusing and style. An enjoyable read. Philosophical sociology at its best.
July 28, 2021
Amazing and eye-opening book concerning the social side of AI and why AI may never be intelligent no matter how many resources we pour in, or how smart it appears to be. It's kind of sad in a way. At the same time, everything in this book makes sense. We are humans living in society, and our intelligence is dependent on our culture, even in scientific areas of expertise.
On the other hand, maybe we are beings that function on brute force principle and our brain works on mathematics. This feeling when we get something right may be just the result of inner reward when our neural network gets the right answer and thus reinforce our weight for a certain node in the network. If you agree with that then maybe AI will be intelligent, they have the same feeling, but it will be written in code instead of organic matter.
If you don't really agree, then it's hard to think how AI will ever be intelligent and we need a new paradigm shift in how we approach AI and the difference between brute-force intelligence (statistical intelligence) and real intelligence (which we still cannot define, but we know it's the kind that humans have).
On the other hand, maybe we are beings that function on brute force principle and our brain works on mathematics. This feeling when we get something right may be just the result of inner reward when our neural network gets the right answer and thus reinforce our weight for a certain node in the network. If you agree with that then maybe AI will be intelligent, they have the same feeling, but it will be written in code instead of organic matter.
If you don't really agree, then it's hard to think how AI will ever be intelligent and we need a new paradigm shift in how we approach AI and the difference between brute-force intelligence (statistical intelligence) and real intelligence (which we still cannot define, but we know it's the kind that humans have).
June 3, 2019
An older white middle class man and his fears of unknown.
September 20, 2018
Author Harry Collins, a research professor at the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, has produced a very readable tome that asks: ’how far do we still need to go before we arrive at a point in time where we cannot distinguish between the social understanding of humans and computers?’
While the successes of ‘deep learning’ seem to be blurring the line between human and machine, Collins rightly argues that we are getting ahead of ourselves, caught up in the realms of science fiction and not of science fact. The author suggests that we need, collectively, to rethink and redefine what we call ‘intelligence’.
Take, for example, a human’s learned abilities with language and being able to ‘repair’ and fill in the gaps of other people’s communications towards us. We instinctively are able to make mental adjustments to allow for the slurring of words, jumbled letters or partly completed sentences and still understand what our fellow humans are trying to say to us, but computers, at present, cannot do this kind of ‘repair’.
The key component of Collin’s thesis, if you like, is that without some degree of socialization computers will never truly be ‘intelligent’ in the truest sense of the word. Humans develop social skills that allow them to integrate into society over a lengthy period of time. Much of this socialisation involves our connecting with other humans through our bodies and interpreting physical signals, something our current AIs struggle to do.
Collins talks about there being six levels of artificial intelligence, starting from Level 1’s ‘engineered intelligence’, which we already live with, through Level IV’s ‘humanity challenging culture consumers’, right through to Level VI and its ‘autonomous alien societies’.
The author urges us to avoid creating a Silicon Reich, and move away from letting ourselves be dictated to by stupid computers who only understand black and white concepts, and move toward a more positive future where human-like computers will be as context-sensitive as the humans that are living and working around them.
Harry Collins has produced a fascinating book which posits as many questions as it tries to answer. One to be read and reread for sure.
Review by Justin Richards
Originally published: https://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc...
While the successes of ‘deep learning’ seem to be blurring the line between human and machine, Collins rightly argues that we are getting ahead of ourselves, caught up in the realms of science fiction and not of science fact. The author suggests that we need, collectively, to rethink and redefine what we call ‘intelligence’.
Take, for example, a human’s learned abilities with language and being able to ‘repair’ and fill in the gaps of other people’s communications towards us. We instinctively are able to make mental adjustments to allow for the slurring of words, jumbled letters or partly completed sentences and still understand what our fellow humans are trying to say to us, but computers, at present, cannot do this kind of ‘repair’.
The key component of Collin’s thesis, if you like, is that without some degree of socialization computers will never truly be ‘intelligent’ in the truest sense of the word. Humans develop social skills that allow them to integrate into society over a lengthy period of time. Much of this socialisation involves our connecting with other humans through our bodies and interpreting physical signals, something our current AIs struggle to do.
Collins talks about there being six levels of artificial intelligence, starting from Level 1’s ‘engineered intelligence’, which we already live with, through Level IV’s ‘humanity challenging culture consumers’, right through to Level VI and its ‘autonomous alien societies’.
The author urges us to avoid creating a Silicon Reich, and move away from letting ourselves be dictated to by stupid computers who only understand black and white concepts, and move toward a more positive future where human-like computers will be as context-sensitive as the humans that are living and working around them.
Harry Collins has produced a fascinating book which posits as many questions as it tries to answer. One to be read and reread for sure.
Review by Justin Richards
Originally published: https://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc...
November 8, 2018
This book is a refreshing take on the AI, arguing from a sociologist's standpoint why machines cannot fully gain natural language fluency and hence human intelligence. So much what we call intelligence is socially embedded that unless we fully embed computers into human society, they can ever fully acquire the quality we recognize as human intelligence. The author writes in a lucid, flowing style so that the lay reader can grasp the complex and nuanced issues involved.
June 29, 2022
This was a bit of a difficult book to read. I am unfamiliar with some of the concepts and words that the author used. I also found some of his reasoning to be based on assumptions that were a bit shaky.
The author's thesis is that we need to be wary of attributing intelligence to computers and therefore giving them too much authority or power over us. I found his reasoning a bit muddy. First, he seems to equate intelligence with linguistic competence. I am not sure that is a valid equivalence. Second, I suspect there are a lot of people who couldn't pass the kind of Turing test he says that computers must be able to pass to be deemed intelligent. There are clearly many tasks that computers are much better at than we are so it is fine to turn those tasks over to them even if they aren't intelligent in the human sense.
In summary, I didn't think it was as good as Gravity's Ghost, perhaps because I am more familiar with physics than I am with sociology. Nevertheless, it was an interesting book even if I don't agree with the author's conclusions.
The author's thesis is that we need to be wary of attributing intelligence to computers and therefore giving them too much authority or power over us. I found his reasoning a bit muddy. First, he seems to equate intelligence with linguistic competence. I am not sure that is a valid equivalence. Second, I suspect there are a lot of people who couldn't pass the kind of Turing test he says that computers must be able to pass to be deemed intelligent. There are clearly many tasks that computers are much better at than we are so it is fine to turn those tasks over to them even if they aren't intelligent in the human sense.
In summary, I didn't think it was as good as Gravity's Ghost, perhaps because I am more familiar with physics than I am with sociology. Nevertheless, it was an interesting book even if I don't agree with the author's conclusions.
July 10, 2022
Harry Collins is a sociologist and Distinguished Research Professor at Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences. This thought-provoking book takes a deep dive into what we mean by ‘intelligence’ and what it takes to pass the Turing Test, arguing that despite extraordinary developments in artificial intelligence, the Singularity is not at hand but we are in danger of fooling ourselves that it is and thus surrendering to ‘stupid’ machines.
November 27, 2018
It is denser than Lead. Required reading for anyone serious about understanding AI and it’s limits.
Too many references to previous pages and passages for my taste. Don’t line looking back that often.
But, boy, did I learn a lot.
Too many references to previous pages and passages for my taste. Don’t line looking back that often.
But, boy, did I learn a lot.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews