【话匣子英语】人工智能

 苏珊和安德鲁今天讨论的主题是人工智能.....

Andrew:           Some people are really interested in artificial¹ intelligence and the role that it will play in the future. Other people don’t care at all. So I would say that I’m in the first camp. I really am interested in this topic. What about you, Suzanne? Are you interested in it? Have you thought about it much? What camp are you in?

 

Suzanne:        I’m definitely² not in the camp of I don’t care or don’t think about it. I have only seen examples of artificial intelligence on TV or in movies. But I haven’t really experienced³ artificial intelligence, except for my robot, Susan. Ugh … I do think about it, but it kind of scares me because I find the human qualities and human connections so important in the world that I get kind of scared that maybe robots would take over the world.

 

Andrew:           Well, you’re not alone in this thought, because some of the world’s smartest people—like Stephen Hawking⁴, Elon Musk⁵, and Bill Gates—they’ve all warned about the potential dangers of AI, of artificial intelligence. But I also think there can be good things with AI. And so today, you and I will have a chat about AI, and we’ll break this episode⁶ into two parts. The first part, I want to talk about the good news, the potential benefits of AI, the positive aspects. And then in the final half of the episode, we’ll go to the gloom and doom⁷ and we’ll talk the potential negative aspects of AI. Does that sound good to you?

 

Suzanne:        That sounds good to me.

 

Andrew:           OK. Let’s start with the good news.

 

Suzanne:        OK. Good news first. Can you put on your thinking cap for a second?

 

Suzanne:        Mmhmm.

 

Andrew:           Thinking into the future, if artificial intelligence becomes a thing, if we can figure out how to invent artificial intelligence, what would be a potential positive aspect, in your opinion?

 

Suzanne:        I think we would have access to even more of the world, and more information.

 

Andrew:           Hmm.

 

Suzanne:        I think the speed at which we could communicate would be even faster than it is now, and that is exciting.

 

Andrew:           That is exciting. Can you imagine an artificial intelligence supercomputer that could act as a translator, a perfect translator for all of the world’s languages? How cool would this be?

 

Suzanne:        Yeah! That would be amazing. And what about the idea of cars that can drive themselves and direct themselves, in traffic and across the country, like on big road trips?

 

Andrew:           This is such a cool idea to me. I drive but I honestly don’t love driving—stresses me out a little bit because I don’t trust other people. They’re on their phone texting or … I don’t know. They’re distracted⁸. This is the scary part about driving.

 

Suzanne:        Yeah.

 

Andrew:           But if we had self-driving cars, wow! That would take the stress right out of it.

 

Suzanne:        Would it, though? Would you feel like you can trust a machine to drive itself?

 

Andrew:           I would trust it, yes.

 

Suzanne:        More than a person?

 

Andrew:           Yeah, because from what I’ve seen about self-driving cars so far, they are pretty good and they have cameras looking all over the place. They have lasers⁹. They have tons of tech built into the car.

 

Suzanne:        Yeah.

 

Andrew:           So that it’s more aware than a person can be.

 

Suzanne:        That’s true.

 

Andrew:           I think right now, maybe the technology isn’t perfect but in 5, 10 years, the speed of technology, the way that it progresses so fast, we’re going to figure this one out. I’m really confident about it.

 

Suzanne:        That’s really interesting. Additionally, the cars that would be programmed to be able to drive themselves, they would also have a uniform response to things.

1 artificial   

adj.人工的，人造的，人为的；做作的，假装的

参考例句：

• The new dam will form a large artificial lake behind it.新筑的水坝将会在后面形成一个人工湖。
• We don't use any artificial flavourings in our products.我们的产品不使用任何人工调味剂。

2 definitely   

adv.一定地，肯定地；明确地，确切地

参考例句：

• The team will definitely lose if he doesn't play.如果他不参加比赛，这个队肯定会输。
• I shall definitely be home before six o'clock.6点以前，我一定回家。

3 experienced   

adj.有经验的；经验丰富的，熟练的

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather.有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• Perhaps you and I had better change over;you are more experienced.也许我们的工作还是对换一下好，你比我更有经验。

4 hawking   

利用鹰行猎

参考例句：

• He is hawking his goods everywhere. 他在到处兜售他的货物。
• We obtain the event horizon and the Hawking spectrumformula. 得到了黑洞的局部事件视界位置和Hawking温度以及Klein—Gordon粒子的Hawking辐射谱。

5 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

6 episode   

n.（作品的一段）情节，插曲，系列事件中之一

参考例句：

• The episode was a huge embarrassment for all concerned.这段小插曲令所有有关人员都感到非常尴尬。
• This episode remains sharply engraved on my mind.这段经历至今仍深深地铭刻在我的心中。

7 doom   

n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定

参考例句：

• The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
• The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。

8 distracted   

a.注意力分散的，思想不集中的

参考例句：

• When working, one should concentrate and not allow oneself to be distracted. 工作时要集中精力，不要分心。
• Noise outside distracted her mind from her studies. 门外的噪音使她心神不宁，无法集中注意力学习。

9 lasers   

n.激光( laser的名词复数 )；激光器，镭射器

参考例句：

• One example is the use of lasers to separate isotopes. 用激光分离同位素就是一个例子。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Lasers promise to change this by making isotope separation easier, and cheaper. 激光可以改变这种局面，从而使同位素分离变得比较容易、比较廉价一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技