Can Intelligence be Artificial?

Can Intelligence be Artificial?

Humans as a species possess a monopoly on Intelligence. This ‘natural’ intelligence is a consequence of billions of years of evolution, where single celled organisms evolved into complex beings like you and me.

Due to our human-centric world, we often tend to attribute ‘end goal’ to the natural process of evolution of life on earth. There is none. Evolution didn’t happen because it was destined to produce an intelligent species such as homo sapiens.

Evolution has remarkably enabled humans to perceive, comprehend, interpret the ‘nature’ around them. Humans then collate, structure and classify what they have perceived. This is the cumulative corpus of ‘knowledge’ humans have created. We further have a unique ability to make inter-linkages between different knowledge blocks, either in an imaginatively creative way or in a logically deductive way. This way knowledge gets transformed into actionable intelligence.

The word ‘artificial’ is an antonym of natural, something which doesn’t exist on its own. Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the ability of a non-human entity to mimic human-like intelligent thinking. Since AI is not natural, it can have an ‘end-goal’ or objective.

Would AI be able to break or supersede the human monopoly on intelligence?

This question fascinates a lot of people. Techno-futurists certainly believe so. In order to attempt an answer we should classify AI’s caliber, as this prescient article from 2015 does, into three kinds – ANI, AGI and ASI.

ANI refers to Artificial Narrow Intelligence or Weak AI. Cars, ticket-booking, personalized recommendations on apps, email spam filters, translation engines, chess programs are common examples of ANI. As you would have noticed, the results of ANI engines have been refined over a decade. Recall the clunky computer generated translations or the speech-to-text programs. Basically, the AI has enhanced its ‘predictive power’ after multiple iterations of algorithms running endlessly over massive amounts of data.

AGI refers to the Artificial General Intelligence or strong AI. In simple terms it is the ability of an algorithm to understand and create abstract linkages between knowledge blocks, an innate characteristic of ‘natural intelligence’ as discussed above. Machines can easily beat a human on brute computation power and repetitive tasks. Hece making a chess program is an easy task. But machines have a hard time figuring out ‘abstractions’ or ‘meaning’ out of the words, images, and speech generated by humans.

A step in the direction of AGI can be this latest version of DALL.E. This AI tool is capable of interpreting descriptions in natural language and creating realistic images out of it.

The third stage of AI is ASI or Artificial super intelligence. Super intelligence not only in terms of speed but also quality. This is the realm of the ‘unknown unknowns’. Futurists debate over the timelines when this could become an eventuality. The argument made is – as humans we are limited by our natural brain, which had the ability to create a self-learning algorithm and it did, but it lacks the ability to imagine how AI would exponentially enhance itself in times to come. Simply put, ASI would be synonymous with God.

“Hey Google, next Sunday, compose and send the partners’ message wishing everyone on account of Diwali, with a creative message which denotes prosperity and happiness, based on my aesthetic preferences.”

Pondering when the commands like above may become a reality, I take your leave.

Ecosystem Ventures This Week

Key Highlights – Events

We are happy to share that Mr. Abhijeet Bhandari (Partner, Ecosystem Ventures) has been invited as a jury at the Bharat Pitchathon event, #HSX2022, an Entrepreneurship Conclave 2022 presented by Headstart, held in Bangalore.

Startup Funding Summary

Adda247, a Gurgaon-based edtech startup, has raised $35 Mn in funding from WestBridge Capital, Google, Info Edge (India) and Asha Impact – Read More

Isthara CoLiving, a Hyderabad-based premium co-living brand, has raised $10 Mn in funding from Eagle Investments – Read More

Good Health Company, a Hyderabad-based healthtech startup, has raised $10 Mn in Series A funding from Left Lane Capital, Khosla Ventures, Quiet Capital and Weekend Fund – Read More

Flickstree, a Mumbai-based content and marketing technology startup, has raised $5 Mn in Pre-Series B funding from Venture Catalysts Group  – Read More

Explorex, a Bangalore-based foodtech startup, has raised $5 Mn in Pre-Seed funding from Taher Savliwala, Kevin Lin, James Park, Harpreet Rai and Liron Shapira  – Read More

M&A Snippets

Bangalore-based edtech platform Vedantu has acquired Bangalore-based test prep platform Deeksha for $40 Mn  – Read More

Delhi-based e-commerce company Moglix has acquired Chandigarh-based security system supplier ADI for an undisclosed amount  – Read More

Delhi-based edtech startup Physics Wallah has acquired Delhi-based edtech platform PrepOnline.in for an undisclosed amount  – Read More

Mumbai-based real estate broking platform Homesfy Realty has acquired Mumbai-based property brokers EQServ for an undisclosed amount  – Read More