When we hear the word Artificial Intelligence (AI), most of us would naturally think it has to do with “something related to computers”. Not many would fathom that there is a significant relationship between AI and psychology.
Truth is, one could go so far as to say psychology is inevitable in AI. Assuming AI is the creation of machines that react and act in a way that would normally require human intelligence, psychological components become even more important.
It is necessary to introduce and distinguish AI from true or real AI (Artificial General Intelligence “AGI”). Technically defined, AGI is the simulation of actual human behavior, when AI has reached a level that is truly self-thinking and self-aware, capable of understanding or learning intellectual tasks to the aptitude humans can. This is way more than a complex program that fools man’s limited ability to detect a fraud. In AGI, machines are supposed to be built in a way that makes it impossible to distinguish from real humans.
While many companies make big advances in the field of AI, most AIs today are highly specialized. Those are artificially intelligent algorithms that are as good if not better than humans at one specific task (e.g. playing chess).
Some of the biggest advancements in AI today have been artificial neural networks, which are technologists’ way of mimicking the way that humans brains work with code. However, emotional intelligence, given how emotions are fluid and inexact, seems to be the harder task for AGI to conquer.
So how far off are we from being able to create AGI? Experts expect and predict the fast rough AGI to be created around 2030. However, they believe it won’t be until 2060 until AGI will have gotten good enough to pass a “consciousness test”.
So next time you hear the word “AI”, you should think about the key ingredient behind it: psychology; or more explicity, psychology applied to AI.
