Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

Can We Comprehend Deep Learning Systems?

Science fiction readers have long enjoyed the humorous works of Lewis Padgett (who was really a married couple). In the 1943 short story The Proud Robot, they describe a robot with ways of thinking and sensing that, well, don't make sense to humans:

"How’d you know where to reach me?"
"I vastened you," the robot said.
"What?"
"I vastened you were at the Vox-View studios with Patsy Brock."
"What’s vastened?" Gallegher wanted to know.
"It’s a sense I’ve got. You’ve nothing remotely like it, so I can’t describe it to you. It’s rather like a combination of sagrazi and prescience."
"Sagrazi?"
"Oh, you don’t have sagrazi, either, do you? Well, don’t waste my time..."

In an intriguing article in Technology Review, Will Knight talks about how nobody really knows how the most advanced algorithms behind self-driving cars (and other technology) are able to do the things they do.

...deep learning, has proved very powerful at solving problems in recent years, and it has been widely deployed for tasks like image captioning, voice recognition, and language translation. There is now hope that the same techniques will be able to diagnose deadly diseases, make million-dollar trading decisions, and do countless other things to transform whole industries.

But this won’t happen—or shouldn’t happen—unless we find ways of making techniques like deep learning more understandable to their creators and accountable to their users. Otherwise it will be hard to predict when failures might occur—and it’s inevitable they will.

There’s already an argument that being able to interrogate an AI system about how it reached its conclusions is a fundamental legal right. Starting in the summer of 2018, the European Union may require that companies be able to give users an explanation for decisions that automated systems reach. This might be impossible... Even the engineers who build these apps cannot fully explain their behavior.

(Via The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI.)

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/1/2019)

Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )

Related News Stories - (" Artificial Intelligence ")

Will AIs Give Better Results If You're Rude To Them?
'I said, "Listen up, motherf*cker.' - John Varley, 1983

Chinese Tokamak Uses AI To Keep Fusion Plasma Stable
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'

Alexa+ And Its AI Brain Improvements
'What's it do?' he asked. 'It amuses.' Philip K. Dick, 1965.

Are AIs Going Rogue Like Hal 9000
'I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me...' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1968.

 

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

Will AIs Give Better Results If You're Rude To Them?
'I said, "Listen up, motherf*cker.'

Cybertruck Robotic Arm F10 Drone Launch!
Drone away!

Black Fungus Blocks Radiation
'You were surrounded by Astrophage most of the time'

Liuzhi Process Now In Use In China
'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'

Reflect Orbital Offers 'Sunlight on Demand' And Light Pollution
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'

Will Robots Become Family Caregivers?
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'

Chinese Tokamak Uses AI To Keep Fusion Plasma Stable
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'

Time Crystals Can Now Be Seen Directly
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'

RoboBallet The Dance Of Cooperative Robots
'...an integrated seven-unit robot team.'

Chrysalis Generation Ship to Alpha Centauri
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'

Alexa+ And Its AI Brain Improvements
'What's it do?' he asked. 'It amuses.'

Does CloneRobotics Offer A True Android?
Is this What Little Girls Are Made Of?

Brain Implant Is Able To Capture Your Inner Dialogue
'So you see, you can hide nothing from me.'

Are AIs Going Rogue Like Hal 9000
'I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me...'

Animated Tumblebugs On Astounding Cover!
'Gaines and Harvey mounted tumblebugs, and kept abreast of the Cadet Captain...'

LingYuan Vehicle Roof Drones Now Available, ala Blade Runner 2049
Accompanied by a small selection of similar ideas from science fiction.

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.