Is There a Super Intelligent AI?

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Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Nick Bostrom are worried about some aspect of AI run amok. How would you react to their level of anxiety? I think even though they're smartest people in the world, probably a lot smarter than I am, they don't understand intelligence. The alignment with values is just this malleable switch that you can turn on and off," he says.

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.