The Dictionary: Intelligence

Intelligence
noun
1 the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills:
2 the collection of information of military or political value

The Dictionary

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Intelligence does not mean being right or wrong. All it means are two things

  • Acquiring data
  • Matching the current input to the acquired data

Richard Feynman said it best during his lectures on quantum mechanics, “You start with a guess.” A scientific theory or hypothesis is nothing but a guess. An educated guess but a guess nonetheless.

Albert Einstein had to wait for years for proof that his theories were or not correct. He was a well educated guesser who got lots of things right. Without the Scientific Method there is no way to know the correctness of the guess.

The current state of AI is just what The Dictionary states it it. What it lacks is fact checking, i.e. the Scientific Method to test and verify the output.

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This has important practical consequences. For example, AI applied to self driving cars. AI inference will match the current situation to the stored data and suggest what it considers statistically to be the best action. That does not mean 100% safe action and it can never be. In the animal kingdom this is the equivalent of a fight or flight situation. Get it right and you feed and survive. Get it wrong and it’s goodby! AI does not mean perfection.

What AI lacks and needs is fact checking, i.e., the Scientific Method applied to its output.

The Captain

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Yes. Perplexity has been held up as a better AI-powered search engine because it cites its sources. Trouble is, the sources are often just people’s opinions on the internet.

https://www.perplexity.ai/

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What AI actually lacks is the ability to move across time.

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