美国国家公共电台 NPR--'Throughline' examines artificial intelligence — and these days AI is everywhere

'Throughline' examines artificial intelligence — and these days AI is everywhere

Transcript¹

Robots. Androids. The Terminator. C3P0. We've given a lot of names to AI: artificial intelligence. Some believe it's the key to humanity's future, others the first step towards our downfall.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Artificial intelligence in everything from dating apps to medical care forms an invisible architecture for modern life. For humans, it raises a question that science fiction has often grappled with - can we make a more perfect version of ourselves?

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FRANKENSTEIN")

COLIN CLIVE: (As Henry Frankenstein) It's alive. It's alive. It's alive.

MARTIN: Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei host NPR's history podcast Throughline, and they bring us this origin story for AI.

RUND ABDELFATAH, BYLINE²: It's the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.

MEREDITH BROUSSARD: And 10 men get together to invent the field of artificial intelligence.

ABDELFATAH: This is Meredith Broussard. She's a data journalism³ professor at New York University.

STEPHANIE DICK: It was instigated⁴ by John McCarthy, who was a mathematics professor at Dartmouth.

ABDELFATAH: And Stephanie Dick, an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University who specializes in the history of mathematics and computing⁵.

DICK: The proposal that John McCarthy wrote pulls no punches at all - quote...

BROUSSARD: "We propose that a two month, 10-man study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H."

DICK: Second sentence.

BROUSSARD: "The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture⁶ that every aspect of learning..."

DICK: "...Or any other feature of intelligence can, in principle, be so precisely⁷ described..."

BROUSSARD: "...That a machine can be made to simulate it."

Something else that I think was really interesting about this conference is they decided⁸ on the name artificial intelligence as the name of their new field. I think the name was chosen aspirationally. There's a lot of desire to make science fiction real, that you're going to make a sentient⁹ machine. It's an enormously grandiose¹⁰ idea.

DICK: The Dartmouth conference has become an origin myth commemorated¹¹ with a plaque¹² and everything - on this site, artificial intelligence was born. But in practice, the conference was a bit of a flop¹³, actually. There was a lot of conflict and tension and disagreement, and there wasn't actually a coherent field that emerged out of the conference.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

DICK: We hear nothing in that origin myth about the relationship that AI has to industrialization or to capitalism¹⁴ or to these colonial legacies¹⁵ of reserving reason for only certain kinds of people and certain kinds of thinking.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RAMTIN ARABLOUEI, BYLINE: And that's important because those legacies provided a lot of the vocabulary for the field that would become known as AI. For centuries, factories had been reshaping the nature of work as more and more tasks that had once been done only by human hands were now being done by machines. And this era of rapid technological¹⁶ advancement¹⁷ culminated¹⁸ in the 20th century with the creation of something truly terrifying.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: At zero minus 15 seconds, a warning tone sounds in the plane.

ARABLOUEI: The atomic bomb.

(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)

ABDELFATAH: The atom bomb made many people wary¹⁹ of new technologies. But some elite²⁰ academics and scientists believed that better technology was actually the key to our future.

DICK: What if human decision-making procedures were too slow? What if people's judgments²¹ are clouded by their emotions?

ABDELFATAH: The thinking was that we could engineer our way out of the problems we'd created, and that led to a boom in investment in science and technology, including artificial intelligence.

ARABLOUEI: Which brings us back to that famous Dartmouth conference in the summer of 1956. After all, a conference of mathematicians²³ and scientists...

BROUSSARD: Mostly white men who were educated at elite institutions.

ARABLOUEI: ...Seemed like a pretty good investment. And while they couldn't agree on much, they did share a philosophy of AI, characterizing human minds and digital computers as...

DICK: Quote-unquote, "species of the same genus." They are fundamentally the same. Bodies don't matter. Society doesn't matter.

ABDELFATAH: Keep in mind, at this point, computers were so big, they took up whole rooms, made tons of noise and had vacuum tubes for data input²⁴.

DICK: You know, the most disturbing part of the history of AI for me comes from the fact that these men who were working in artificial intelligence looked at those massive, noisy, hot mainframe computers and saw themselves in it.

ARABLOUEI: One proposed measure of machine intelligence was something called the Turing test, named for its creator, British mathematician²² Alan Turing.

ABDELFATAH: The way it works is a computer and a human being are put in separate rooms. A judge asks each of them questions without seeing either.

DICK: And then the judge, of course, is meant to be able to figure out whether the machine is the human or the human is the human. And what I have always found so shocking about the Turing test is that it reduces intelligence to telling a convincing lie, to putting on the performance of being something that you're not.

BROUSSARD: And so we see the blind spots of the creators then reflected in the technological artifacts that they create.

ABDELFATAH: With each new advancement in AI, humans have continued to move the goalpost for what true intelligence means, as we grapple with the same fundamental question those creators did.

DICK: What is it that is uniquely human?

ABDELFATAH: Maybe it's our intuition, our creativity, our emotions.

DICK: And then people try to automate²⁵ those things. We then redefine our humanness again and again. And what it all draws attention to for me is a sort of deep conviction that what it means to be human is both relative and a moving target in history.

MARTIN: Stephanie Dick spoke²⁶ with the hosts of Throughline, Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei. You can hear the whole Throughline episode wherever you get your podcasts.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

4 instigated   

v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The government has instigated a programme of economic reform. 政府已实施了经济改革方案。
• He instigated the revolt. 他策动了这次叛乱。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

6 conjecture   

n./v.推测，猜测

参考例句：

• She felt it no use to conjecture his motives.她觉得猜想他的动机是没有用的。
• This conjecture is not supported by any real evidence.这种推测未被任何确切的证据所证实。

7 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 sentient   

adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地

参考例句：

• The living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God's stage.生还者认识到，他们不过是上帝的舞台上有知觉的木偶而已。
• It teaches us to love all sentient beings equally.它教导我们应该平等爱护一切众生。

10 grandiose   

adj.宏伟的，宏大的，堂皇的，铺张的

参考例句：

• His grandiose manner impressed those who met him for the first time.他那种夸大的举止给第一次遇见他的人留下了深刻的印象。
• As the fog vanished,a grandiose landscape unfolded before the tourists.雾气散去之后，一幅壮丽的景观展现在游客面前。

11 commemorated   

v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Lincoln commemorated the soldiers killed in the battle in his address. 林肯在演说中表扬阵亡将士。 来自辞典例句
• You'll be commemorated for killing a spy, and be specially discharged. 你们每杀一个间谍将会被记录到特殊档案。 来自电影对白

12 plaque   

n.饰板，匾，(医)血小板

参考例句：

• There is a commemorative plaque to the artist in the village hall.村公所里有一块纪念该艺术家的牌匾。
• Some Latin words were engraved on the plaque. 牌匾上刻着些拉丁文。

13 flop   

n.失败(者)，扑通一声；vi.笨重地行动，沉重地落下

参考例句：

• The fish gave a flop and landed back in the water.鱼扑通一声又跳回水里。
• The marketing campaign was a flop.The product didn't sell.市场宣传彻底失败，产品卖不出去。

14 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

15 legacies   

n.遗产( legacy的名词复数 )；遗留之物；遗留问题；后遗症

参考例句：

• Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind. 书是伟大的天才留给人类的精神财富。 来自辞典例句
• General legacies are subject to the same principles as demonstrative legacies. 一般的遗赠要与指定数目的遗赠遵循同样的原则。 来自辞典例句

16 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

17 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

18 culminated   

v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• a gun battle which culminated in the death of two police officers 一场造成两名警察死亡的枪战
• The gala culminated in a firework display. 晚会以大放烟火告终。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 wary   

adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的

参考例句：

• He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
• Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头，突然警惕起来。

20 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

21 judgments   

判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判

参考例句：

• A peculiar austerity marked his judgments of modern life. 他对现代生活的批评带着一种特殊的苛刻。
• He is swift with his judgments. 他判断迅速。

22 mathematician   

n.数学家

参考例句：

• The man with his back to the camera is a mathematician.背对着照相机的人是位数学家。
• The mathematician analyzed his figures again.这位数学家再次分析研究了他的这些数字。

23 mathematicians   

数学家( mathematician的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? 你以为我们的数学家做不到这一点吗？ 来自英汉文学
• Mathematicians can solve problems with two variables. 数学家们可以用两个变数来解决问题。 来自哲学部分

24 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

25 automate   

v.自动化；使自动化

参考例句：

• Many banks have begun to automate.许多银行已开始采用自动化技术。
• To automate the control process of the lathes has become very easy today.使机床的控制过程自动化现已变得很容易了。

26 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。