As an investor that is looking at many so-called “AI” companies, I felt the urge to commit my thoughts on paper. Just to be clear, I am no expert in the field, these are my thoughts and my thoughts only. Yet, I do believe I have acquired my intelligence through my life journey. So as an intelligent human, I took my time to study the subject, for my own intelligence as well as to understand that which I am looking at, as an investor.
First let’s take a look at the definition of intelligence:
(1): the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations : REASON also : the skilled use of reason (2) : the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective or ever moving criteria or situations (such as tests) or what is called life. Since humanity was created humans are trying to control life, yet life fundamentally is housed in chaos. It is unpredictable at best.
Well my friend, it is a mouth full. My understanding is that human intelligence is being acquired and built over time , during a journey of one’s lifetime. In the world of technology humans are trying to “mimic” intelligence and some to control it. Yet to create a new intelligence, we will have to get to a point where it will act freely and independently from human influence. Have a “mind of its own”, free will. And that is what humanity is afraid of, actually panicking to be more direct.
The brain is complex; in humans it consists of about 100 billion neurons, making on the order of 100 trillion connections. It is often being compared with another highly complex system that has enormous problem-solving power: the digital computer. Both the brain and the computer contain a large number of elementary units—neurons and transistors, respectively—that are wired into complex circuits to process information conveyed by electrical signals. At a global level, the architectures of the brain and the computer resemble each other, yet are very distinct, consisting of largely separate circuits for input, output, central processing, and memory. Yet the human brain trains itself, each unit at a time as it is being exposed to anything and everything outside of it, the computer needs to be programmed, by humans. It is an oxymoron in and of itself.
- A typical computer runs on about 100 watts of power. A human brain, on the other hand, requires roughly 10 watts. That’s right, your brain is ten times more energy-efficient than a computer.
- Thus both in terms of spikes and synaptic transmission, the brain can perform at most about a thousand basic operations per second, or 10 million times slower than the computer. The computer also has huge advantages over the brain in the precision of basic operations.
- Even if you don’t train your quantum brain to be more creative, it’s comforting to know that your brain might contain 100 billion q-bits, which would make your own brain arguably more powerful than all the digital computers in the world combined
- Humans are more powerful than computers at tasks that are not easily broken into simple steps. The fields of computer science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are aimed at breaking down problems into ‘byte-sized’ chunks that are ‘digestible’ by computers.
- The Computer system has no I.Q. of its own. It does only what it is programmed to do. It cannot make decisions of its own.
- Rather than use more electricity, quantum computers will reduce power consumption anywhere from 100 up to 1000 times because quantum computers use quantum tunnelling. Quantum computers are very fragile and unpredictable at best at least at this point in time
- So, even they do exist, and yet they are not there yet. Unless you have millions of dollars you don’t need, you won’t be able to buy a quantum computer today. At the same time, quantum computing is one of the most promising technologies. It is a technology you may want to start learning today rather than tomorrow.
So my conclusion is that although we use the term Artificial Intelligence – AI like a buzz word in technology today we are years away from having real, or as I would like to call it Alternative Intelligence. Until Quantum computing (or a new breed of computer power) will become mainstream it is impossible to create. The most optimistic views say 5-7 years more conservatives say 10-12 years. What we have is a combination of Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Data Mining and Self Evolving Algorithms that poured into today’s computer technology controlled by human invented processes. So yes, it is “Artificial Intelligence” at best, yet not true Intelligence.
So founders, next time before you say in your pitch: “We are using an AI engine with our platform” think again and maybe frame it differently, as investors, beware, we know a thing or two about it. Make sure you know a thing or two about it as well.