Kelly Clancy in The New Yorker: Should artificial intelligence mimic biology?

The prestigious magazine The New Yorker has published an article by Branco Weiss fellow Kelly Clancy about the limits of using biological metaphors in designing artificial intelligence. The piece covers the beginnings of A.I. research and shows the difference between the functions and faculties of the human brain and a computer.

Dr. Clancy then goes on to discuss recent advances in the field reached by companies as Google or IBM mirroring the biology of the brain. She concludes that these designs are more or less cartoons of what neuroscientists think might actually be happening in the brain – but nevertheless, she adds, they might be useful cartoons:

“Who is to say that every feature of the brain is worth mimicking? Our own human algorithms are not necessarily ideal. As Darwin demonstrated, evolution is not an unremitting race toward perfection. It is a haphazard wander around good enough.”

Read the article on The New Yorker website