Expert Shares His Thoughts On AI And The Reality Of ‘Her’

‘Her’, a film by Spike Jonze has sparked much debate over the future of artificial intelligence and how it will integrate with humans. The well known futurist Ray Kurzweil, who started working at Google on machine learning and voice processing back in 2012, has shared his thoughts on whether the film’s concept is possible.

He feels that the idea of AI being used as companions could become a reality within the next 15 years and thinks that other futuristic technology featured in the film, such as pin-sized “freckle cameras”, could be seen as soon as the end of this decade.

However due to Kurzweil’s scientific background and expertise in the field, he is able to look at the film’s plot and ideas from a logical viewpoint and declares the AI’s rapid “evolution” and eventual desertion unrealistic. He explains that human-level AI would be “roughly doubling in capability each year,” whereas Samantha “appears to be progressing much faster than that.”

He continued that although the film was generally interesting and entertaining, the likelihood of it becoming a reality is very small.  “In my view, biological humans will not be outpaced by the AIs because they (we) will enhance themselves (ourselves) with AI,” argues Kurzweil. “It will not be us versus the machines (whether the machines are enemies or lovers), but rather, we will enhance our own capacity by merging with our intelligent creations. We are doing this already. Even though most of our computers — although not all — are not yet physically inside us, I consider that to be an arbitrary distinction.”

[Image via herthemovie]

SOURCE: http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/18/5421618/ray-kurzweil-her-review