实用英语口语(高等级) 3.The mind of the machines

POLITICIAN:Can machines really 'think'? 人工智能——一台像人类一样思考的电脑，这个概念对我来说恐怖得难以置信。 Is building a machine that thinks like a human really possible? We are ever closer to building an AI that thinks like a human. Anyone doubting the likelihood of this happening need only think about the technological advances that have been made in computing over the last ten years.

POLITICIAN:Truth is AI has been used in air traffic control centers, in automobile fuel injection systems, to perform surgery, and to re route every text message and email you send for quite a while now. In fact, artificial intelligences are everywhere. What does 'intelligence' really mean? If you can solve a math equation or learn a language you're intelligent, right? But what about emotional intelligence?

POLITICIAN:How do we explain feelings such as sadness, fear, love and hate? It seems to me that, although we can teach a computer how to play chess, we'll never be able to teach it to feel happy when it wins. 'Intelligence' is all about problem solving, or making and achieving goals. In the not too distant future, scientists will have discovered how to program machines with human traits such as reason, planning skills, communication, perception and an ability to learn. If a machine can exhibit all these skills at once, then it can surely be said to be intelligent.

POLITICIAN:I'm not so sure. Does programming a computer to imitate human problem solving skills really mean that it's intelligent? Copying something doesn't mean you understand it. Say some words to me in a language I don't know, and I can probably say them back to you. But it doesn't mean I understand what I'm saying.

POLITICIAN:In the early years of its life, a child learns everything it knows about the world by copying. Right now, like a child, AI is in its infancy. But as the industry grows up, intelligent machines won't just copy humans, they'll totally outsmart them. Think of it this way: two of the major differences between humans and computers are: (a) humans have emotions, computers don't; (b) humans make mistakes, computers don't. Imagine a machine in the future that has the intelligence of the cleverest human, but makes none of the mistakes!

POLITICIAN:In this way, AI's in the future could be far superior to us. If that happens, we'll all be out of a job and computers really will have taken over the world. I think it will all depend on how we reshape our society to include the AI's of the future. If AI's can do all the rotten jobs we hate from taking out the trash to defusing a ticking bomb - then perhaps our world will be a better one. Or, if future AI's really do learn to feel emotions like love and hate, maybe they'll make us take out the trash, while they sit on the sofa and watch TV.