Engineering Intelligent Systems

4Intelligent Systems and the People they Love

There is a high expectation that intelligent systems technology will have a significant impact on economic growth in the United States and other developed countries. Accenture estimates that artificial intelligence will double the economic growth rate in many countries by 2035, but this won't happen automatically – it will happen through the design and implementation of new intelligent systems.

In this chapter, we'll explore one of the fundamental questions in the public consciousness about AI and intelligent systems: can computers think, or understand? People who are not specialists in AI technology may well assume that AI means building thinking machines, and by thinking they mean humanlike thought. Can computers be made to think in the way humans think about thinking? Can we simply assume that a computer that plays chess at a world championship level is thinking its way through the game in a way similar to how a human would play chess?

4.1 Can Machines Think?

It's important to note at the outset that we are not asking if machines can think. They certainly can – we are thinking machines. We are biological in nature, but there's no reason to think that only biological machines can think. What we are asking here though, is can computers, running software programs, be said to think, or to understand? It's one of the most considered and debated questions in the subfield of philosophy known as the philosophy of mind, and fascinating ...