When the likes of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking go on record warning about the dangers of AI, it’s probably prudent to take notice. However, before rushing off into full panic mode, some definitions and perspective would be in order.
Charles Darwin and Alan Turing, in their different ways, both homed in on the same idea: the existence of competence without comprehension. Some of the greatest, most revolutionary advances in science have been given their initial expression in attractively modest terms, with no fanfare. Charles Darwin managed to compress his entire theory into a single summary…