AI: Doom or Boon

By Sean Kim '20

Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI, has been the most recent topic of controversy in almost every field of science. The ability for AI to expand, discover, and process information is quickly becoming unparalleled to that of any human being. Yet it is this superb quality that raises concerns over whether or not AI will prompt exponential human progress or yield ultimate destruction. Many suppose the development of AI to be the literal next step to a better future. Others believe it may be mankind’s last invention. Either way, AI should be acknowledged as a revolutionalty achievement which has been gradually growing––quite similar to the human mind. Yet in juxtaposition to the human mind, AI’s major flaws and hiccups are made all but obsolete.

The most recent watershed development set by AI was its ability to acquire a sense of numerical digits similar to the way humans and animals conceive numbers. This ability to establish an understanding of quantity is called a ‘number sense.’ It allows individuals who possess it to estimate the amount of objects in a setting. Possession of ‘number sense’ may not appeal as a major turning point for AI, as the ability for a computer to estimate how many apples are in a box doesn’t seem as astonishing nor threatening as some of the more prominent sci-fi theories. However, the underlying issue with this seemingly ‘benevolent’ progress is that this ability was acquired while researchers were attempting to teach an AI to merely identify objects, a far more simple task, rather than provide a grander numerical application for AI.

The findings of AI’s capability of learning more difficult skill sets without guidance open up the possibilities of AI’s self awareness and autonomy, which is similar to that of a human’s. According to an experiment by Neurobiologist Andreas Nieder of the University of Tübingen, such correlation of teaching oneself how to count could possibly aid the explanation of how humans develop an understanding of numbers before they are told or taught how to count.

Along with a potential key to the understanding of number development among humans, this new AI discovery also foreshadows the future. Such discovery of AI’s fast and intricate self learning system sheds light on the future growth of AI and begs the question as to whether that future will be good or bad.

Works Cited

Temming, Maria. “A New AI Acquired Humanlike 'Number Sense' on Its Own.” Science News, 13 May 2019, www.sciencenews.org/article/new-ai-acquired-humanlike-number-sense-its-own.