{"id":13130,"date":"2017-11-03T21:17:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T21:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/?p=13130"},"modified":"2023-05-30T23:58:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T22:58:29","slug":"google-deepmind-is-making-artificial-intelligence-a-slave-to-the-algorithm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/2017\/11\/03\/google-deepmind-is-making-artificial-intelligence-a-slave-to-the-algorithm\/","title":{"rendered":"Google DeepMind is making artificial intelligence a slave to the algorithm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google\u2019s role in university artificial intelligence courses alarms Sheila Hayman<br \/>\nfrom the Director\u2019s fellow, MIT Media Lab.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><!-- GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2017\/nov\/03\/google-deepmind-is-making-artificial-intelligence-a-slave-to-the-algorithm\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardian.png\" alt=\"Powered by Guardian.co.uk\" width=\"140\" height=\"45\" \/>This article titled &#8220;Google DeepMind is making artificial intelligence a slave to the algorithm&#8221; was written by Letters, for The Guardian on Friday 3rd November 2017 18.49 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Your article (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2017\/nov\/02\/big-tech-firms-google-ai-hiring-frenzy-brain-drain-uk-universities\" title=\"\">Hi-tech brain drain threatens British university research<\/a>, 2 November) contains one particularly chilling revelation: that Google DeepMind now runs artificial intelligence courses at UCL and Oxford.<\/p>\n<p>Having met the DeepMind people in my role with the MIT Media Lab, I know that their definition of \u201cintelligence\u201d is so impoverished that it doesn\u2019t extend beyond the abstract calculations that an algorithm can achieve, and completely fails to understand that human intelligence is embodied and distributed throughout our physical selves \u2013 and indeed between them, in the mirror neurons that fire in sympathy when we watch a dancer or help an injured friend. In short, it\u2019s not just depressing, it\u2019s bad science.<\/p>\n<p>Artificial intelligence of the kind Google promotes can play Go and even \u2013 at a pinch \u2013 recognise Bach or Picasso. It can never produce Bach or Picasso, still less understand the complexity of social forms and culture that made their lives possible.<\/p>\n<p>If we entrust the education of those who will determine the future relationship of people and machines to a company whose core belief is that all human experience can be replicated by algorithms, all we can hope is that global warming wipes us out before the machines do.<br \/><strong>Sheila Hayman<\/strong><br \/><em>Director\u2019s fellow, MIT Media Lab<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u2022 Join the debate \u2013 email <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com\" title=\"\"><strong><em>guardian.letters@theguardian.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u2022 Read more Guardian letters \u2013 <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" title=\"\"><strong><em>click here to visit gu.com\/letters<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>guardian.co.uk &#169; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2010<\/p>\n<p>Published via the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/open-platform\/news-feed-wordpress-plugin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Guardian plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian News Feed<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.org\/extend\/plugins\/the-guardian-news-feed\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Wordress plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">plugin<\/a> for WordPress.<\/p>\n<p><!-- END GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google\u2019s role in university artificial intelligence courses alarms <strong>Sheila Hayman<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10220698900476085_349663338397715":"","twitter_1370559253_1370559253":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[61,435,437,438,434,143,436,141,64,177,63,142],"class_list":["post-13130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-article","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-computing","tag-consciousness","tag-deepmind","tag-editorials-reply","tag-google","tag-letters","tag-main-section","tag-technology","tag-the-guardian","tag-uk-letters-and-leader-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}