5 Variations of Artificial Intelligence

To better understand the question of whether machines can think, it may prove helpful to differentiate the dichotomy between "strong" and "weak" a little and compare it with a scheme suggested by the philosopher Keith Gunderson. He distinguishes between the following AI "games":

1. Weak AI, task, non-simulation: The computer can perform tasks that previously required intelligence, but no intelligence is required of the machine whose states have nothing to do with humans or other cognition.

2. Weak AI, simulation, non-human: A computer can simulate the cognitive processes in a non-human brain, but the states of the machine may or may not be related to those in the non-human brain.

3. Weak AI, simulation, human: A computer can simulate human cognitive processes, but there is no specific correlation between the computer states and the cognitive states of the brain.

4. Strong AI, non-human: The cognitive states found in machines are not functionally identical to those in the brain and, therefore, cannot be used to recreate human thought processes.

5. Strong AI, human: The cognitive states of the machines are functional (although not physical by nature) and identical to those found in the human brain.

(Thanks to Malik Caycioglu for reengineering the graphic. It looks much better now ;-))

Murat

(The text is an excerpt from the book "Mindful AI - Reflections on Artificial Intelligence")