How Does Doug Hofstadter Feel About AI?

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Doug Hofstadter was worried about the progress that AI had made in chess and in music, two areas that he had underestimated. A lot of the engineers at Google went into the field because they had read his book when they were in high school. They loved his books. And here he was saying AI is terrifying. That was exactly what they were trying to achieve. So they didn't really understand at all.

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.