EE2: Intelligent machines: Will the technological singularity happen?

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) will no doubt have a significant impact on society in the coming years. But how intelligent can a machine be? When artificially-general intelligence is capable of recursive self-improvement, a hypothetical ‘runaway effect’ — an intelligence explosion — might happen, yielding an intelligence surpassing all current human control or understanding. This event is known as the technological singularity; this is the point beyond which events may become unpredictable or even unfathomable to human intelligence. This panel will picture the current state of the art for AI, deep learning and robotics, and try to predict where this technology is heading.