Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Bitcoin the enabler - Truly Autonomous Software Agents roaming the net
by
jgarzik
on 12/12/2011, 17:01:20 UTC
Why does it need anything? It is an artificial construct that exists at our whim.

Then it isn't an artificial intelligence.

An AI is a set of systems which acts upon an environment and takes actions which maximize success.  If owning a datacenter and power generating facilities serve to ensure the success of the system then a learning system will eventually reach that outcome and attempt to achieve it.

If the system is incapable of learning then it isn't intelligent. 

...and "not intelligent" does not mean lack of value.

To bring the thread back (somewhat) to the land of concrete, real world possibilities...  there is a huge difference between narrow AI -- a dumb, real world AI that follows a simple script -- and AI found in movies and the heads of dreamers.

Narrow AI is feasible with today's technology.  Narrow AI is just a list of goals, a series of if-then propositions, along with the necessary code to implement goal execution.  In this case, narrow AI may interface with humans through a mechanical turk, to solve discrete problems that require human judgement ("is user interface A or B more effective?").