Member-only story
Why do many people seem to think “understanding”, “intelligence” and “consciousness” are absolutes?
Much has been written about whether AI models are capable of understanding language, and about whether we humans are conscious in ways that inanimate objects cannot be. Many writers deny that computer programs can “really” understand our languages or be conscious, but their arguments rely, at least implicitly, on absolute concepts of “understanding”, “intelligence”, and “consciousness”.
The continuing development of self-driving cars that can respond to spoken commands permits us to explore ideas of understanding, intelligence, and consciousness in new ways. For it will soon be possible, if it isn’t already, to tell a self-driving vehicle to “take me to the airport.”
If you make that request to the vehicle, and it takes you to the airport, then it would be hard to deny that it “understood” your request. It would certainly show more understanding of your request than a taxi driver would who didn’t know English.
It doesn’t matter that the vehicle wouldn’t know what an airport is, or what all of its functions are (How many of us humans know about all that goes on at an airport?) All it needs is to know where the airport is on its road map. That is entirely sufficient for it to understand and…
