Ethics Finder

Artificial Intelligence

Initially the aim of Artificial Intelligence was to model or implement human cognitive processes. This involved designing and physically installing program(me)s that follow and to that extent replicate intelligent human behaviour: automated adding machines are an example, data sorting computers are another. It was not assumed that the machines were themselves intelligent, in fact their operation only involved mechanical or electrical processes. Subsequently, however, self-learning and self-correcting functions were designed which when embodied in increasingly complex and sophisticated hardware began to raise the question of whether such machines themselves have become intelligent. Debates about these matters are intense and will intensify as the technology develops, but the basic question remains ‘can this machine think or is it just implements the designs of a thinking human being?

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