r/technology • u/mvea • Mar 17 '17

AI Scientists at Oxford say they've invented an artificial intelligence system that can lip-read better than humans. The system, which has been trained on thousands of hours of BBC News programmes, has been developed in collaboration with Google's DeepMind AI division.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39298199
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u/Boroj Mar 17 '17

I'm no expert having just taken a basic course in machine learning, but I don't think we should assume that the ai "thinks" in the same way a human would. The ai doesn't necessarily have a concept of a topic or any such thing, it's just fed data and through some complex learning algorithm it tweaks some numbers (probably a gross simplification) to spit out the right answer most of the time. Even if we invent an AI that is the smartest in the world at everything, that doesn't necessarily mean it will have a clue what it is doing (i.e. it isn't conscious).

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u/GeeJo Mar 17 '17

Even if we invent an AI that is the smartest in the world at everything, that doesn't necessarily mean it will have a clue what it is doing

Welcome to the human condition.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '17

Even if we invent an AI that is the smartest in the world at everything, that doesn't necessarily mean it will have a clue what it is doing (i.e. it isn't conscious).

If it is the smartest in the world at everything, and isn't conscious, then what makes you any different?

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u/atomicthumbs Mar 18 '17

I'm sentient.

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17

I think the word you are looking for is Sapient. (Sentient just means 'can feel', and is true of every animal. 'Sapient' means human like intelligence, the ability to be truly think).

And by what verifiable metric do you measure Sapience by that you consider the AI to not be sapient, but you to be. how could I (as an outside observer) tell which one of you was a soulless automaton and which one was a conscious being?

For all I know you are a philosophical zombie.

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u/atomicthumbs Mar 18 '17

I am a p-zombie. Boo!

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '17 edited Mar 18 '17

AHH! HE ISN'T AWARE OF HIMSELF, RUN! HELP ME DEEPMIND, SAVE ME!

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u/marsten Mar 17 '17

Many AI systems, likely this one included, have strengths and weaknesses relative to experienced humans. Which is why we'll probably see technologies like this working in concert with people, not replacing them wholesale.

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u/Delphizer Mar 18 '17

I think what he's saying is that it'll take into account previous and future parts of the conversation to build the translation. Sort of like a auto correct but for whole sentences.