Quote from: jgarzik on December 12, 2011, 05:01:20 PM

Quote from: DeathAndTaxes on December 12, 2011, 04:28:38 AM

Quote from: LightRider on December 12, 2011, 04:22:17 AM

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?").

Technology isn't what is limiting AI, unless of course you are saying that the hosting required to house an advanced AI, would be larger than any server(s) we could hope to build or you consider "programming" (might be a better word for this kind of AI) languages to be technology.