Concept

Weak artificial intelligence

Summary
Weak artificial intelligence (weak AI) is artificial intelligence that implements a limited part of mind, or, as narrow AI, is focused on one narrow task. In John Searle's terms it “would be useful for testing hypotheses about minds, but would not actually be minds”. Weak artificial intelligence focuses on mimicking how humans perform basic actions such as remembering things, perceiving things, and solving simple problems. As opposed to strong AI, which uses technology to be able to think and learn on its own. Computers are able to use methods such as algorithms and prior knowledge to develop their own ways of thinking like human beings do. Strong artificial intelligence systems are learning how to run independently of the programmers who programmed them. Weak AI is not able to have a mind of its own, and can only imitate physical behaviors that it can observe. It is contrasted with Strong AI, which is defined variously as: Artificial general intelligence: a machine with the ability to apply intelligence to any problem, rather than just one specific problem. Human-level intelligence: a machine with a similar intelligence to an average human being. Superintelligence: a machine with a vastly superior intelligence to the average human being. Artificial consciousness: a machine that has consciousness, sentience and mind. Scholars like Antonio Lieto have argued that the current research on both AI and cognitive modelling are perfectly aligned with the weak-AI hypothesis (that should not be confused with the "general" vs "narrow" AI distinction) and that the popular assumption that cognitively inspired AI systems espouse the strong AI hypothesis is ill-posed and problematic since "artificial models of brain and mind can be used to understand mental phenomena without pretending that that they are the real phenomena that they are modelling" (p. 85) (as, on the other hand, implied by the strong AI assumption). AI can be classified as being “... limited to a single, narrowly defined task. Most modern AI systems would be classified in this category.
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