Objections to Artificial Intelligence

The field of artificial intelligence is a very controversial field. With any controversial subject or field, there are many objections. Artificial intelligence seeks to answer many questions in regards to the human mind, but there are many people who believe that this isn't possible.

One of the most famous objections to artificial intelligence is John Searle's Chinese Room argument. This argument by Searle offers up an idea that a machine can do a certain task, but does it actually have an understanding of the task. This is a great question in the field of AI. Sure a machine can do a certain task, but does it grasp and have an understanding of what it is actually doing? This poses questions whether or not AI can actually model human processing and consciousness.

Here is a link describing Searle's Chinese Room argument.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-room/#3

Another one of the most famous objections is the Turing test. Many people use the Turing test as a way to test if a computer can actually think. In the Truing test there is a human judge that has a conversation with a human and a computer (they're all in separate locations). It is the judges job to figure out with is a computer and which is a human. They do this test through text-only conversation through a computer screen and keyboard. If the machine can pass as a human, it has passed the Turing test.

Here is a link to a description of the Turing test.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

Another famous objection is one given by Lady Lovelace. Lovelace's objection with AI is that it cannot have any original ideas, or free will. A computer can merely do whatever information and rules it is given. If computers have no free will, how can they grow as programs?

Another objection is that programs in artificial intelligence that stems from Lady Lovelace's objection is that computers are only good in their specific domain. If they are given input from a different domain where they have no way of processing the information, the program is considered useless.

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to the field of artificial intelligence. There are many people who believe many things about artificial intelligence. Some promoting and believing that artificial intelligence can be successful, and others who believe that AI cannot model human processing, and that it never will. It is up to you to draw your own conclusions about artificial intelligence. As long as there is technology and great want to understand the workings of the human mind, there will be great debates about the field of artificial intelligence and its applications.

Here is a great site about AI that contains good objections about AI and also replies to those objections.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/art-inte/#H4

Another site containing objections to artificial intelligence.
http://www.xuenay.net/objections.html