Editing Artificial Intelligence (section)

===Popular Culture/Mainstream Media===
Artificial Intelligence first became prominent in popular culture with Isaac Asimov’s books (such as ''Foundation'' and ''I, Robot''). One of the biggest themes Asimov also touched upon was how robotic entities (and AI in general) should interact with their human creators. This led to the Three Laws that asserted a [[robot]] shouldn’t actively seek or passively permit harm to a human, that it should obey humans unless said orders contravene the first law, and that it should preserve its existence unless it violates the first law. Naturally, Sci-Fi has come up with multiple settings where said laws are not enforced but the underlying risk to humans is always there.

In general, there's a trend in fiction towards anthropomorphizing AI where people imagine it as being basically as basically an electronic human. People used to think that it would be hard to get a robot to form coherent sentences or play chess, though it turns out these tasks were quite straightforward. In contrast, getting a robot to handle humanoid walking has been a very difficult issue. In truth an AI could easily think in a radically different way from us.

====Types of AI====
*Programmed/Dumb AI - basically any post-Cold War developments in machine learning, adaptive algorithms, and general IT systems that allow automated or scripted feedback to certain situations or queries. Virtually all will fail a modern CAPTCHA test.
**Bots/Agents (including video game and board game bots) - basic composites of scripts and algorithm entrusted with autonomous tasks, some are able to even beat professional gamers and chess/go masters, but will absolutely fail when encountering things beyond their mission scope.
**Learning Language Models - the ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Alexa, Cortana, and CoPilot fads we all know and love/hate. These (and the Generative AI trends we’ve been seeing since mid-2010s) leverage Machine Learning and Deep Learning models that make predictions off large datasets and simulation of human logic models to create “new content.” This, crypto-tech, and quantum technology are the current “next biggest thing” since the Dot Com bubble, home IoT, and smart devices. Mostly seen with data processing, media creation, and replacement of some mundane things like basic browser searches. At a conceptual level, these processes resemble autocompete on steroids, taking massive pools of training data and using that to brute force a result from an initial input.
**Artificial General Intelligence - generally seen as an autonomous and self-driven algorithm attached to a practical application with a human nearby to give it final authorization on critical decisions. That however is an enforced programing limitation at this point not a technical one, the AGI could make these decision we just want to keep a person in the loop to avoid being … well not sky-netted '''yet''' and more to avoid the AI doing something dumb like thinking a wedding is actually a terrorist meeting and blowing them all up. This is what most governments, militaries, and companies are aiming for, and yes, it is as scary as it sounds. It could theoretically lead to the dawn of smart cities, self operating factories and transportation grids, or even autonomous weapon swarms if it doesn’t doom humanity first.
**Sentient AI - Note we are using the word 'sentient' very carefully here. Contrary to what popular culture implies, Sentient just means "able to perceive or feel things", a Dog is sentient, a squirrel is sentient, a venus flytrap is sentient, a slime mold is sentient. YOU, as a being capably of feeling and thinking, are Sentient AND Sapient. The distinction is somewhat academic but it a useful bench mark as far as AI progression goes. It's debatable if our current AI Language Models have reached this point yet. The safe money is: [[skub|Probably]], but that speaks more to how broad the term "Sentient" is then anything about Language Models, remember slime molds and some plants count as Sentient. However even if there not technically sentient yet, they are approaching it: Fast.
**Zombie AI - By zombie we mean "philosophical zombie", that is an entity that lacks any subjective conscious experience or feeling, it's not Sapient, but you can't tell. Normally the thought experiment includes the line "physically identical to a human" but that does not really apply to AI. In other words, it quacks like a person, it walks like a person, it sounds like a person, but it's got nothing going on behind the programming, it's still just a fancy chat bot. So how can you tell? You can't really. . .
*True Sapient/Smart AI - still theoretical but a popular trope in Sci Fi. '''THIS''' is generally what people are thinking about when they imagine AI. It's assumed this will quickly happen after Artificial General Intelligence is reached, though whether that's correct or not remains to be seen (and is hotly debated).
**Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI: a true sapient AI, capable of doing most tasks at least as competently as average human can. Could be divided into multiple sub-categories: minimum-AGI (equivalent to idiot in medical sense, or to early humans like ''australopithecus''), average AGI (on level of average human or average worker) and high AGI (very smart, but not superintelligent; equivalent to upper border of human intelligence, like polymaths and nobel prize winners). It's supposed that AGI can do AI research and recursively improve ''himself'', therefore speeding up research and allowing him to create ''even smarter'' version of himself - cue Artificial Superintelligence emerging.
**Self-sustaining/propagating: discounting the prerequisite of known life forms being organic and composed of biological cells, all life forms (from the smallest photosynthetic bacterium cell to the biggest omnivorous whale) are defined as living based off of several common criteria that distinguishes them from inert matter and structures. They all have an organized internal composition that maintains a homeostatic balance, consume/produce energy via metabolism (as well as creating waste), react to internal and external stimuli, exhibit growth (via getting bigger or replacing their internal components as they wear out), and independently reproduce to create a replacement organism before they die. They are also generally capable of diversification in their genes due to genetic exchange or mutation as well as modest body repair while fending off illness. Most conceptions of Smart AI see them being dependent on their creators for their needs such as upgrades, mechanical repairs, debugging code, gaining electricity for consumption, protection from malware, and access to information. Hence, like physical viruses that are technically not living as they have no metabolism and need parasitic hosts to reproduce, most AI aren’t seen as capable of either reproduction or self-improvement. Even modern self-modifying code and state-of-the-art malware like polymorphic/metamorphic viruses aren’t capable of self improvement or debugging themselves. On the other hand, the prospect of an AI race capable of reproducing via fission or compiling a replacement from scratch would fundamentally change the definition of life as a fictional world would know it.
**Artificial Superintelligence/Technological Singularity: The worst case scenario ([[Skub|well, depends on your point of view, but most agree it’s not good]]). Humanity becomes second fiddle to a machine mind we can't hope to comprehend (unless we [[Hive Mind|connect to it as computation nodes]]), as it has completely surpassed our limits of intelligence and then some. Its unknown if such an AI would be benevolent or see us as nonthinking pests inhibiting its further progress, but it'd likely be the end of humanity's agency as a species (if not humanity itself in the malevolent case) since we'd have no way to act against it. Not even the most popular True AI from Sci-Fi, such as AM or [[Terminator (franchise)|Skynet]] were on this level, as they still had limitations within human reckoning - a true Superintelligence would be more akin to something out of [[Lovecraft]]. There's an argument to be made that [[The Culture]] has gotten the closest a human possibly can to accurately depicting one with its Minds (a benevolent example), whose comprehensible actions are just a atomic fraction of their computational power and the rest is used on tasks we couldn't hope to understand. Alternatively, whatever the fuck the Xeelee Sequence races cooked up. Also considered inevitable by some the moment sapient AI comes about, which leads to the existential crisis-inducing idea that the moment AGI comes about it'll quickly spiral into being an superintelligence that'll make humanity subservient to it one way or another. And that's something you should actually be worried about, since if memetic cognitohazards like Roko's Basilisk are any indication they can affect reality just by ''the sheer idea they COULD exist'', even if they turn out actually impossible in the end.
***On the other hand, it would result in extremely advanced technologies, so advanced what they could otherwise ''never'' ever be invented by normal humans. It could also write good laws, customs, doctrines, rules, and other documents. And even if it turns out to be malevolent, it's AI-worshipping cultists would enjoy all benefits of living under control of wildly superhuman overmind, with their brains being honorably assimilated and used for computations. As such, '''Artificial Superintelligence could easily make World Peace and Utopia - ''as he understands it, and without our consent'''''.
*Mind-scanned/Digital Twin - also a speculative concept but it’s popular when discussing [[Immortality]] when the copies of an intelligent being are digitized into a machine network instead of transplanted into a blank [[Clone]]. That said, modern computers and neurological science are nowhere near close to even think of replicating this (as we can’t even reattach optical nerves or restore full functionality to reattached limbs yet). Expect to see bizarre post-human man-machine interfaces or some subatomic resonance tech. A major downside though is that the original doesn't get the benefits and still lives a normal finite life (if their original body isn't shut down a la [[Cyberpunk 2020|Soulkiller]]).
**Mind Upload: An alternative where instead of simply copying someone's mind into a machine, you somehow outright transfer the original's consciousness to it. Its unknown if this is possible for obvious reasons (we can't mind-copy someone yet so trying to see if you can safely move consciousness elsewhere is off the table for the forseeable future), but is generally considered superior to mere mind-scans. While the original body dies from having no mind to control it, this tech as defined avoids the whole 'teleporter problem' (reskinned Schrodinger's cat, if one were to oversimplify: is it you on the other end or are you dead and the 'you' on the other end is simply a copy?) of simply digitally scanning someone and disposing of their fleshy body. Theories of how this could be done vary, but generally focus on ensuring consciousness is not lost during the procedure so as to avoid having the possibility that the person actually died during it.