Machine or Human – Different Intelligence?

Computer bested humanity, technically
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By BRUCE KAUFFMANN
Wednesday, May 09, 2007

…But at what point does massive computational ability simply overwhelm all of those human characteristics? IBM wondered, so it returned to the drawing board and re-designed Deep Blue, giving it the ability to process 200 million chess positions per second. And it challenged Kasparov to a re-match.

That re-match culminated this week (May 11) in 1997, when the new Deep Blue defeated Kasparov 3.5 games to 2.5. Kasparov, who had been called by Newsweek magazine “The Brain’s Last Stand,” conceded defeat after just 19 moves in the decisive sixth game.

Yet in many ways the match was inconclusive in settling the “human” versus “artificial” intelligence debate. If Kasparov’s humanity — his ability to reason — was his strength, so was it his weakness. Before game six Kasparov was mentally drained and played cautiously, and when he made a disastrous mistake early in the game he resigned himself to losing. Unlike computers, humans have feelings.

So, fueled but not settled by Kasparov vs. Deep Blue, the debate rages on. Will artificial intelligence ever advance enough to trump human intelligence, and, if so, what happens then? Will machines become the perfect servant, or will they become the master?

An age-old question that everyone from scientists to science fiction writers has pondered. It’s when the machines start pondering it that we will all have to start worrying.

Here is the full article..