Zhu Pinpin: Making Robots with “Brains”

Earth-shaking Development

At the New York International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, leading experts from around the globe reached a consensus. The third eruption of AI currently taking place is not simply a repetition of the previous two, but should bring about earth-shaking changes. Zhu says he realized this long ago and that the third eruption differs from the previous two in three aspects. First, technological breakthroughs have been made and the application of cloud computing and big data has vastly enhanced computing capabilities and offered better data. Second, in terms of industrial applications, many projects are underway, generating much commercial value. Third, people in the industry now have a more rational attitude than before.

Rational attitudes play a vital role in the development of AI. The term AI was first proposed in the 1956 Dartmouth conference. The computing capabilities of computers are indisputably much stronger than those of human beings, but there is still no clear way that computers could simulate human thinking to create similar intelligence.

In Zhu’s opinion, the human thought process is more than logic. It depends on people’s common sense and experience. Around 1970, AI encountered its first low tide when it fell short of expectations. Knowledge was used to drive its development, and AI language specifically designed for logical thinking was invented. However, before 2000, another failure struck and the second low tide followed for the same reason. AI development still could not meet our high expectations and no products were commercialized. This led to a discouragement as regards investment.

Recently, AI has entered a new round of development following the success of AlphaGo. This has greatly boosted human confidence. “Machines are able to check and use the vast amount of data which we have accumulated, but their IQ is much lower than ours. This means that at most they can only become champions in certain specific field.”

Having realized that AI and human thinking are based on different logic, we will not let them compete with us in wisdom, nor be obsessed with “the Turing Test,” and will not shackle them to our standards. Instead, we will focus on one problem, solve it and then target the next. This is the right direction. The prospects for AI will thus be even brighter.