The idea of the singularity is that once AI reaches human-level intelligence, it will get smarter than humans very quickly. Ray Kurzweil predicts by 2045, we'll have intelligences that are a billion times smart,. or even more times smarter than humans. But for one thing, software does not show an exponential trend in any way that you want; this is where AI is sort of at right now.
Computer Scientist and author Melanie Mitchell of Portland State University and the Santa Fe Institute talks about her book Artificial Intelligence with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Mitchell explains where we are today in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and where we might be going. Despite the hype and excitement surrounding AI, Mitchell argues that much of what is called "learning" and "intelligence" when done by machines is not analogous to human capabilities. The capabilities of machines are highly limited to explicit, narrow tasks with little transfer to similar but different challenges. Along the way, Mitchell explains some of the techniques used in AI and how progress has been made in many areas.