25 May 2023

How AI falls short of the wonders of the human brain

From Nine To Noon, 9:05 am on 25 May 2023

Photo: 123rf

"The False Promise of ChatGPT" was the headline of a recent New York Times op-ed, penned by three leading thinkers in the field of artificial intelligence.

It was in response to the flurry of concern about the acceleration of artificial intelligence and the potential of a new AI chatbot, ChatGPT. But Dr Noam Chomsky, Dr Jeffrey Watumull and Dr Ian Roberts argue that rather than being at the precipice of machines surpassing the brain, there is still a massive chasm separating AI from the human brain.

They say AI is not true intelligence, and programmes like ChatGPT cannot replicate how the brain works, particularly in how humans reason and use language.

Kathryn speaks to one of the authors, Dr Jeffrey Watumull who is a director of artificial intelligence at the science and technology company Oceanit.