How A.I. is searching for Aliens | The Age of A.I.
摘要
TLDRThe video examines the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to address big existential questions like the presence of extraterrestrial life and the creation of lifelike intelligent machines. It follows scientists at the SETI Institute using AI to enhance the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, including a project involving the Allen Telescope Array designed to capture astronomical data. Additionally, the video explores a company named Sanctuary A.I. working to create 'synths,' synthetic humans that mimic human emotion and intelligence, raising questions about what it means to be human and the ethical considerations inherent in such technology. The discussion includes the historical intrigue humans have had with cosmic life and how AI might bring us closer to answers, transforming our understanding of life and humanity itself.
心得
- 🌌 Exploring AI in cosmic inquiries about life beyond Earth.
- 🛰 Functions of the Allen Telescope Array in SETI’s mission.
- 🤖 Sanctuary A.I.'s 'synths' mimicking human traits.
- 🧠 Creating a physical and cognitive human replica raises philosophical queries.
- 📊 AI's capability to sift through vast data in search for extraterrestrial life.
- 🔍 AI as a vital tool in analyzing cosmic data for anomalies.
- 🌍 The longstanding human curiosity about life beyond our planet.
- 🤔 Ethical considerations surrounding the advancement of AI.
- 🔬 Impact of AI advancement on understanding human life.
- 🚀 The potential for AI to revolutionize space exploration and synthetic life creation.
时间轴
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
The video begins with a discussion about how AI might be able to address existential questions like the existence of extraterrestrial life and creating lifelike machines. It highlights the vast and complex universe, raising the possibility of life beyond Earth and delves into the contributions of scientists in exploring these ideas, emphasizing the role of AI in processing vast amounts of data generated by space research.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
The narrative transitions to a focus on the Allen Telescope Array (ATA). The array is described as a sophisticated tool far superior to past telescopes, designed specifically to search for extraterrestrial life by capturing a wide range of frequencies. The segment highlights a field experiment where scientists employ AI to process signals from the Trappist-1 system, discussing the system’s unique planetary alignments as opportune moments for seeking communications or anomalies.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
The video deepens into a demonstration of AI's role in SETI's exploratory missions, utilizing advanced algorithms to filter out noise and potentially detect unnatural signals. The ATA's use in scanning large swathes of sky for signs of extraterrestrial technology is highlighted, showcasing how AI helps in identifying anomalies among vast data, akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
Shifting to AI's potential in recreating human-like life, the video introduces Sanctuary A.I., a startup crafting synthetic humans or "synths." Their mission is to endow robots with human-like physical, cognitive, and emotional capabilities. Suzanne Gildert, a founder, aims to clone herself as a robot, sparking complex discussions on ethics, human consciousness, and identity.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
Sanctuary A.I.'s endeavors illustrate the technical and philosophical challenges of constructing human-equivalent intelligence. The synth project touches on the intricacies of replicating human senses and artfully mimicking human emotions, all while grappling with the deeper question of what constitutes humanity. The narrative emphasizes the technical marvel and ethical considerations of such advancements.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
The video shifts back to showcasing the reality of AI's integration into understanding life beyond earth and within terrestrial realms, pondering AI's role in bridging technological aspirations with human values. It discusses how AI's development mirrors evolutionary leaps, profoundly impacting future societal norms and ethical frameworks.
- 00:30:00 - 00:36:12
Concluding with reflections on AI's dual potential as both a powerful tool and a philosophical challenge, the video ties back to how humanity itself is redefined in the AI era. By posing open-ended questions on human identity and societal evolution, it underscores AI's role as a transformative, yet controllable, aspect of our existence.
思维导图
常见问题
What is the focus of the video?
The video focuses on the intersection of AI and the search for extraterrestrial life.
Who founded the SETI institute?
SETI was founded by Frank Drake, Jill Tarter, and Carl Sagan.
What is the Allen Telescope Array used for?
The Allen Telescope Array is used to search for extraterrestrial life.
How can AI assist in the search for extraterrestrial life?
AI can process vast amounts of data to find patterns and anomalies that might indicate the presence of extraterrestrial life.
What is the main mission of the Sanctuary A.I. startup?
Sanctuary A.I. aims to create synthetic humans that are indistinguishable from real humans.
What are synths according to the video?
Synths are synthetic humans created with AI to mimic human appearance and behavior.
What role does AI play in understanding outer space data?
AI helps process and analyze vast data from outer space, finding patterns that humans might miss.
Who is Suzanne Gildert?
Suzanne Gildert is the founder of Sanctuary A.I., working on creating synthetic humans.
What ethical challenges does AI development present?
AI development presents ethical challenges around rights, biases, values, and accountability for AI actions.
What future possibility does the video suggest about intelligent life?
The video suggests we might find intelligent extraterrestrial life or create human-like machines here on Earth.
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- 00:00:07Oftentimes, innovations solve practical problems,
- 00:00:11but the advancement of A.I.
- 00:00:12might bring new tools
- 00:00:14to chip away at the larger, even existential questions.
- 00:00:18Are we alone in the universe?
- 00:00:21Can we create lifelike, intelligent machines?
- 00:00:24Maybe they're all moonshots, but imagine, one day,
- 00:00:27having a second, synthetic version of you.
- 00:00:32-How's it going, brother? -Oh, not bad.
- 00:00:34Just spent the last hour mapping half the cosmos.
- 00:00:37I'm looking for a constellation to name after us.
- 00:00:39You mean "me," yeah?
- 00:00:41Whatever. Semantics.
- 00:00:44I'm doing all the work.
- 00:00:46Touchy.
- 00:00:51The starry night sky has been a source of fascination
- 00:00:54and curiosity for centuries.
- 00:00:58Is there something out there?
- 00:01:00We've got all these suspect places to look for life
- 00:01:03in our own solar system.
- 00:01:04And we're just one little solar system
- 00:01:06in a large galaxy,
- 00:01:08which is one of many, many galaxies in the universe.
- 00:01:11And so you realize pretty quickly
- 00:01:13the chances of life elsewhere are pretty high.
- 00:01:25[tuning radio]
- 00:01:27[man] ...we hope we have a number of listeners out there.
- 00:01:29Most of you are probably soft and squishy humanoids.
- 00:01:31In case any artificial intelligence is listening, welcome as well.
- 00:01:35[Bill Diamond] You'll appreciate this,
- 00:01:36being a data scientist,
- 00:01:37you know we're generating about 54 terabytes of data
- 00:01:40every day, so...
- 00:01:42See, that's music to my ears, right there.
- 00:01:43[Diamond] That's music to your ears.
- 00:01:44That's a nice playground for your algorithms.
- 00:01:46[Downey] In remote northern California,
- 00:01:48two scientists are on their way to collect data
- 00:01:50in hopes to answer a cosmic question...
- 00:01:54one that's as old as humankind itself,
- 00:01:57or at least, Galileo.
- 00:01:59[Graham Mackintosh] When it comes to the search
- 00:02:00for extraterrestrial intelligence...
- 00:02:01[Diamond] Right.
- 00:02:03...there is decades of scientific discovery
- 00:02:06and progress
- 00:02:07which is relentlessly telling us
- 00:02:08life is more likely than we thought.
- 00:02:11Yeah, the body of evidence is becoming--
- 00:02:13That's right.
- 00:02:14...overwhelming, but can we find it?
- 00:02:16[Mackintosh] When I was ten years old,
- 00:02:17I was determined to have my own computer,
- 00:02:19and I found out there was a kit that you could buy
- 00:02:23and put together for yourself,
- 00:02:24so I earned enough money to do that,
- 00:02:26and that got me hooked.
- 00:02:27I've been obsessed with computers ever since.
- 00:02:32And I hope, I believe, that A.I. can help us dig deeper,
- 00:02:35and hopefully come to the answer we're looking for.
- 00:02:39Is there life beyond the Earth?
- 00:02:46[Diamond] Ever since humans have been able to gaze up at the sky
- 00:02:48and look at the stars,
- 00:02:50we've wondered,
- 00:02:51"Are we alone?
- 00:02:52Is this the only place where life has occurred?"
- 00:02:56The SETI institute is trying to answer this question.
- 00:03:05SETI institute was founded
- 00:03:06by Frank Drake, and Jill Tarter,
- 00:03:09and Carl Sagan.
- 00:03:11I co-founded this institute back in 1984
- 00:03:14as a way to save NASA money.
- 00:03:16...see if we can backtrack
- 00:03:17to see if we can figure out what's venting...
- 00:03:19Since then,
- 00:03:21it has grown far beyond any of my expectations.
- 00:03:25We have nearly 80 PhD scientists here.
- 00:03:27Our research really starts with, "How does life happen?"
- 00:03:33What are the conditions under which life takes hold?
- 00:03:40We're trying to understand that transition
- 00:03:42of how the universe
- 00:03:43and how our own galaxy and solar system
- 00:03:45went from chemistry to biology.
- 00:03:49The number of civilizations
- 00:03:51that there might be in the galaxy
- 00:03:52is of the order of a million.
- 00:03:54[Downey] Carl Sagan helped bring the cosmos
- 00:03:56down to Earth,
- 00:03:57but he wasn't the first to popularize it.
- 00:03:59Ever since Orson Welles scared our pants off
- 00:04:02with War Of The Worlds,
- 00:04:03pop culture has had its eyes on the skies.
- 00:04:06Little green men, extraterrestrials,
- 00:04:09contact with aliens continues to capture our imagination.
- 00:04:13[Diamond] We're interested in all kinds of life,
- 00:04:16but of course we have a special interest
- 00:04:18in intelligent or technological life beyond Earth,
- 00:04:21hence, SETI.
- 00:04:25Hello, this is Seth Shostak speaking to you
- 00:04:28from Big Picture Science.
- 00:04:29Today we're going to talk about artificial intelligence.
- 00:04:32The machines of today are a lot smarter, if you will,
- 00:04:35at least more capable,
- 00:04:36than the machines of 50 years ago, incredibly...
- 00:04:39There's vast amounts of data coming from space,
- 00:04:41and A.I. can, um...
- 00:04:43allows us to understand that data better
- 00:04:45than we have been able to in the past.
- 00:04:47It's this new capacity we have to see patterns in data...
- 00:04:56[Tarter] We are trying to find evidence
- 00:04:58of somebody else's technology out there.
- 00:05:01We can't define intelligence,
- 00:05:03but we're using technology as a proxy,
- 00:05:06so if we find some technology,
- 00:05:07something that's engineered,
- 00:05:09something that nature didn't do,
- 00:05:10then we're going to infer
- 00:05:12that at least at some point in time,
- 00:05:14there were some intelligent technologists
- 00:05:16who were responsible.
- 00:05:17[Diamond] So, Graham, we call it Area 52.
- 00:05:21[chuckling]
- 00:05:23[Mackintosh] We are headed to the Allen Telescope Array,
- 00:05:25and tonight we are going to be doing an observation
- 00:05:27which really is looking for signs of extraterrestrial life,
- 00:05:31and we're gonna be using A.I. models
- 00:05:33in a way that's never been done before.
- 00:05:35[Diamond] All right, we are good to go.
- 00:05:40So I gotta turn my cell phone off, no Bluetooth, nothing?
- 00:05:43Nope, we need to be in a place that is radio quiet,
- 00:05:46so you don't have interference,
- 00:05:48or at least, you minimize interference.
- 00:05:50We're gonna come around another bend a little up ahead,
- 00:05:53and you'll see the dishes.
- 00:05:57[Mackintosh exclaiming] Oh!
- 00:05:58[Diamond] There we are.
- 00:06:01Welcome to the Allen Telescope Array.
- 00:06:06[Downey] The sole mission of the Allen Telescope Array,
- 00:06:09or A.T.A.,
- 00:06:10is to search for extraterrestrial life.
- 00:06:13Past telescopes were basically toy binoculars
- 00:06:16compared to the A.T.A.,
- 00:06:17which was built in 2007
- 00:06:19with support from Microsoft's Paul Allen.
- 00:06:22Part of what makes it light-years ahead
- 00:06:24is its wider field of view,
- 00:06:26and ability to capture a greater range of frequencies.
- 00:06:30It's also an array,
- 00:06:32which basically means
- 00:06:33it's a group of many small dishes
- 00:06:34working together to cover more ground,
- 00:06:36or sky.
- 00:06:40Welcome to the A.T.A.
- 00:06:42Fantastic.
- 00:06:43Okay. Looks like Jon is out there.
- 00:06:45I think he's manually turning those dishes to get 'em lined up.
- 00:06:48[laughing]
- 00:06:52-Hey, Jon. -Jon!
- 00:06:54-Good to see you, man! -Good to see you, yeah!
- 00:06:57My name is Jon Richards,
- 00:06:58and I'm the Senior Software Engineer
- 00:07:00at the Allen Telescope Array.
- 00:07:02Radio astronomy is similar to optical astronomy,
- 00:07:06except the radio wave frequencies
- 00:07:08are much lower than visual,
- 00:07:10so to receive radio waves, you need an antenna.
- 00:07:14Take a look, Graham. Under the bell jar,
- 00:07:16you see the actual antenna
- 00:07:18that's picking up the signals coming from space.
- 00:07:21This is spectacular.
- 00:07:22[Diamond] It's kept
- 00:07:23below the temperature of liquid nitrogen.
- 00:07:25That brings the noise level down,
- 00:07:27exactly what we want for deep space observation.
- 00:07:29Just amazing.
- 00:07:30[Richards] The radio signals from each one of these dishes
- 00:07:33are brought into our control room,
- 00:07:34digitized, made into binary ones and zeroes,
- 00:07:39and combined together
- 00:07:40to create the effect of having one large dish,
- 00:07:43so we can actually map out the sky
- 00:07:46much like you would
- 00:07:47with a regular optical telescope.
- 00:07:49All right, let's head back.
- 00:07:51Let's go.
- 00:07:54The observation we're gonna do tonight
- 00:07:56is with the Trappist-1 system.
- 00:08:00This is a star that has planets circling,
- 00:08:03and at 8:00 tonight,
- 00:08:04two of those planets are gonna align perfectly with Earth,
- 00:08:07which makes it exactly the right moment
- 00:08:10to do an observation.
- 00:08:11We're gonna be listening in
- 00:08:13for signs of any kind of communication
- 00:08:15between these two planets,
- 00:08:17even if that's not communication directed at us.
- 00:08:21[Diamond] We're counting down to 8:01 p.m.,
- 00:08:23which is when the orientation of these planets
- 00:08:26are going to be lined up in our line of sight,
- 00:08:29the so-called conjunction.
- 00:08:33[Downey] It's a little like an intergalactic stake-out.
- 00:08:35The guys are waiting
- 00:08:36till the two planets are closest together,
- 00:08:38and then plan to eavesdrop on their conversation.
- 00:08:41They have no idea what they're listening for,
- 00:08:44or if there's even gonna be a conversation.
- 00:08:47[Richards] So we can take out this board here.
- 00:08:49We're gonna repurpose it.
- 00:08:51-So that's ready to go? -Yeah, let's go put it in.
- 00:08:52All right, let's get it in.
- 00:08:54[Richards] Since the site's getting close to 20 years old now,
- 00:08:56my job is to get all this data coming in cleanly
- 00:09:00and recorded cleanly,
- 00:09:02and that is a challenge.
- 00:09:03Here's the computer which is sending all the data
- 00:09:06that we receive from all of our dishes
- 00:09:07to our 48 terabytes of data storage,
- 00:09:10so we need to replace a card.
- 00:09:12This card will control our data storage.
- 00:09:15[Mackintosh] You know, often
- 00:09:16when people think of the search for extraterrestrial life,
- 00:09:19they're thinking of someone with headphones
- 00:09:20listening in on something that is sent to us,
- 00:09:23something that's obvious.
- 00:09:24It's really not like that.
- 00:09:26It's a lot more subtle,
- 00:09:27and that's why we're going to be collecting
- 00:09:29enormous amounts of data.
- 00:09:31All of the different parameters we might have to explore
- 00:09:34set that volume, that exploration volume,
- 00:09:37set it equal to the volume of all the oceans on the Earth.
- 00:09:42So how much have we done, in 50 years?
- 00:09:45Well, we've searched one glass of water
- 00:09:49from the Earth's oceans.
- 00:09:50The technologies that we've had to use until now
- 00:09:54were not big enough, not adequate to the job.
- 00:09:57Okay.
- 00:09:58[Mackintosh] That's why we need computer systems
- 00:10:00and artificial intelligence systems
- 00:10:02to really turn that search on its head.
- 00:10:05[Parr] When we think about traditional software,
- 00:10:08we think about human beings writing lines of code.
- 00:10:10What's extraordinary about A.I.
- 00:10:12is that we're teaching machines how to learn.
- 00:10:15This is why it's a quantum leap,
- 00:10:17because for the first time,
- 00:10:18instead of human beings writing the software,
- 00:10:20the computer's actually building an understanding itself.
- 00:10:33[Richards] We have to keep in mind
- 00:10:35that the Trappist-1 system is 39.4 light-years...
- 00:10:3939.6.
- 00:10:3939.6 light-years away,
- 00:10:42so this actual positioning was 39.6 years ago.
- 00:10:46So not only are we, uh,
- 00:10:48are we doing SETI research tonight,
- 00:10:50we're time-traveling.
- 00:10:51[Downey] That's right.
- 00:10:52Because of how far away these planets are,
- 00:10:55and how long it takes radio waves
- 00:10:57to travel through space,
- 00:10:58the guys are listening to a conversation
- 00:11:00from about 40 years ago.
- 00:11:03Here's some perspective.
- 00:11:04It takes about eight minutes
- 00:11:05for radio waves to get from here to the sun.
- 00:11:08So, these planets?
- 00:11:10Yeah, a little farther away.
- 00:11:12[Diamond] Over your shoulder, Graham,
- 00:11:14there's a NASA illustration of the Trappist system,
- 00:11:16and there's at least three rocky, Earth-like planets
- 00:11:19where liquid water can potentially be maintained--
- 00:11:22Right.
- 00:11:23...and that gives rise to the possibility
- 00:11:25that biology could have formed in this system.
- 00:11:27What's really interesting
- 00:11:29about this particular planetary system,
- 00:11:31these planets are very close together,
- 00:11:33much closer than, for example, Earth to Mars.
- 00:11:36That means there could be communication happening
- 00:11:39between these planets,
- 00:11:41and what we can potentially do is listen in.
- 00:11:45Not that we can have a conversation
- 00:11:47or understand what they're, uh...
- 00:11:49-[Mackintosh] We don't need to. -We don't need to.
- 00:11:50[Mackintosh] I love this kind of observation
- 00:11:53because it has as its basic principle
- 00:11:56something that's really important.
- 00:11:58It's not all about us.
- 00:12:00No one's sending us a signal,
- 00:12:02no one's trying to get our attention.
- 00:12:04The whole point
- 00:12:05about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
- 00:12:07is you don't even--
- 00:12:09We don't know what we're looking for.
- 00:12:10Right, right.
- 00:12:11Instead of looking for something specific,
- 00:12:14you have to look for the exceptions
- 00:12:16from what is normal.
- 00:12:17That is where I think
- 00:12:19A.I. is gonna just completely change the game for SETI.
- 00:12:21[Mackintosh] Maybe it's communication,
- 00:12:23maybe it's just a byproduct
- 00:12:26of some technologically advanced civilization
- 00:12:28going about its business.
- 00:12:30All we care about
- 00:12:31is it doesn't look like the rest of nature.
- 00:12:35If it's a needle in a haystack,
- 00:12:37it doesn't look like hay.
- 00:12:39It's like this, each one of these little blips
- 00:12:41is like a point in time of radio power,
- 00:12:44and we take different points in time,
- 00:12:47different windows into the data,
- 00:12:49and we analyze them together
- 00:12:51to see if there's any kind of repetition,
- 00:12:54anything at all
- 00:12:55that might indicate that something isn't random,
- 00:12:58like this, right in the middle here,
- 00:13:00where the random dots aren't random.
- 00:13:03In a computer,
- 00:13:05think of it like a thousand of these sheets,
- 00:13:07and it's moving them a million times a second.
- 00:13:10[Downey] To find order in the randomness,
- 00:13:12the A.I. picks a small area
- 00:13:14and studies its radio frequency data
- 00:13:16to learn what normal sounds like.
- 00:13:18Then, it uses this info to filter out background signals
- 00:13:21from all the data that's been collected.
- 00:13:23What's left is any signal, pattern, or repetition
- 00:13:27that is unnatural.
- 00:13:39They're coming up to perfect alignment.
- 00:13:41Conjunction now!
- 00:13:43[Richards] We're recording.
- 00:13:45[Diamond] Wanna check the audio?
- 00:13:51This is good.
- 00:13:57This is good, nice clean data.
- 00:13:59Crispy clean.
- 00:14:01[Richards] Silence.
- 00:14:02Yeah, that's what we want. I just, well--
- 00:14:06I mean, we've been working up to this for the last month.
- 00:14:08It looks like, it looks like nothing to us,
- 00:14:09but that's the point.
- 00:14:10[Diamond] That's the point.
- 00:14:11That random sound is music to my ears.
- 00:14:14This picture here is just immediate,
- 00:14:17real-time results,
- 00:14:18something that your normal Allen Telescope Array
- 00:14:21would discard as nothing.
- 00:14:23Our point is, not so fast.
- 00:14:25There could well be more in there than we realize.
- 00:14:31We do see some little blip right here...
- 00:14:35That's true, in and around it.
- 00:14:37Yeah. So here, let's press...
- 00:14:41So, now, this all looks similar.
- 00:14:43It's the sort of normal signal,
- 00:14:45but that's interesting.
- 00:14:47It just seems, I don't know--
- 00:14:48It's like it spreads here for some reason.
- 00:14:50Well, I don't know what that means.
- 00:14:51It also is a higher average power.
- 00:14:53It is.
- 00:14:54So, yeah, it's... this is weird, right?
- 00:14:56It is.
- 00:14:57[Diamond] There are a couple of things
- 00:14:59that we are looking at in the data
- 00:15:01that look interesting.
- 00:15:02Now, it's very subtle,
- 00:15:04and this is why we'll need machine-learning to extract
- 00:15:06whether what we're seeing is just something we're seeing,
- 00:15:08or it's real, a real phenomenon.
- 00:15:11All right, so we are done with the Trappist system.
- 00:15:14[Mackintosh] This is great.
- 00:15:16We've clearly grabbed good data.
- 00:15:17It's exactly what we need.
- 00:15:19[Downey] It's gonna take Graham a few days
- 00:15:21to analyze the data,
- 00:15:22nothing compared to what it used to take
- 00:15:24to do manually.
- 00:15:25[Pedro Domingos] Some people think
- 00:15:27that the emergence of artificial intelligence
- 00:15:28is the biggest event on the planet since life,
- 00:15:32because it's going to be a change that is as big
- 00:15:34as the emergence of life.
- 00:15:36It will lead to different kinds of life
- 00:15:37that are very different
- 00:15:39from the entire set of, you know, DNA, carbon-based life
- 00:15:42that we've had so far.
- 00:15:43[Downey] While some are ramping up the search
- 00:15:46in outer space,
- 00:15:47others are using A.I.
- 00:15:49to further explore inner life.
- 00:15:59[Suzanne Gildert] In 20 to 30 years' time,
- 00:16:01you might see a street like this,
- 00:16:03with humans walking up and down it,
- 00:16:04but there might also be a new thing,
- 00:16:07which is human-like robots
- 00:16:08might be walking up and down, too, with us.
- 00:16:12Humans and robots
- 00:16:13are really gonna be doing the same kinds of things,
- 00:16:15and some of the things they'll be doing
- 00:16:17will be maybe superior to humans.
- 00:16:20[Downey] Suzanne is one of the founders
- 00:16:21of Sanctuary A.I.,
- 00:16:23a tech startup that's building what they call "synths,"
- 00:16:26or synthetic humans.
- 00:16:28That's right.
- 00:16:29Artificial intelligence wrapped in a body.
- 00:16:32[Gildert] Our mission is to create machines
- 00:16:34that are indistinguishable from humans
- 00:16:36physically, cognitively, and emotionally.
- 00:16:39[Downey] Doing so
- 00:16:40involves solving problems of engineering,
- 00:16:42computer science, neuroscience,
- 00:16:44biology, even art and design.
- 00:16:47But for her,
- 00:16:49the problem of artificially replicating a person
- 00:16:51boils down to a deeper question...
- 00:16:53What does it mean to be human?
- 00:16:55[Gildert] Understanding what it is to be human
- 00:16:57is a question that we've been asking ourselves
- 00:16:59for many thousands of years,
- 00:17:01so I'd like to turn science and technology to that question
- 00:17:05to try and figure out who we are.
- 00:17:06[Downey] We love stories and films about clones
- 00:17:09and replicants and humanoid robots.
- 00:17:12Why are we so obsessed
- 00:17:14with the idea of recreating ourselves?
- 00:17:17Is it biological?
- 00:17:18Existential?
- 00:17:21[Gildert] To try and understand something fully,
- 00:17:23you have to reverse-engineer it,
- 00:17:25you have to put it back together.
- 00:17:28[Downey] The human that Suzanne knows best
- 00:17:30is... Suzanne,
- 00:17:32so one of her projects
- 00:17:33is to build a synthetic replica of herself.
- 00:17:36[Gildert] There's this thing called the Turing test,
- 00:17:38which is trying to have an A.I.
- 00:17:40that you can't tell is not a human.
- 00:17:43So I wanna try and create a physical Turing test,
- 00:17:46where you can't tell whether or not
- 00:17:48the system you're actually physically interacting with
- 00:17:51is a person, or whether it's a robot.
- 00:17:53So here we have 132 cameras...
- 00:17:57which are all pointed at me,
- 00:17:59and they all take a photograph simultaneously.
- 00:18:02This data is used to create
- 00:18:05a full three-dimensional body scan of me
- 00:18:07that we can then use to create a robot version of me.
- 00:18:11[Downey] Suzanne believes
- 00:18:12that we experience life through the senses,
- 00:18:14so she's putting as much work into making the body lifelike
- 00:18:17as she is the mind.
- 00:18:19[Gildert] We broke down this very ambitious project
- 00:18:21into several different categories.
- 00:18:23The first category is physical.
- 00:18:25Can you build a robotic system that looks like a person?
- 00:18:34So the synth has bones and muscles
- 00:18:36that are roughly analogous to the human body,
- 00:18:40but not quite as complex.
- 00:18:43These hands are 3D-printed as an entire piece
- 00:18:46on our printers.
- 00:18:48[Gildert] We can actually print in carbon fiber
- 00:18:50and Kevlar,
- 00:18:51and we can create robot bones
- 00:18:53that are stronger than aluminum machined parts,
- 00:18:57with these beautiful organic biological shapes.
- 00:19:00So I'm adding in a finger sensor.
- 00:19:04This, uh, current generation
- 00:19:05has a single sensor on the fingertip.
- 00:19:09[Gildert] We build a machine that perceives like a human
- 00:19:11by trying to copy the human sensorium very accurately.
- 00:19:17The most complicated part of the perception system
- 00:19:21is actually the sense of touch.
- 00:19:23Are you monitoring the touch?
- 00:19:24Yes. Touch received.
- 00:19:28[Holly Marie Peck] We've actually embedded
- 00:19:30capacitive touch sensors in the synth's hand,
- 00:19:32essentially pressure sensors
- 00:19:34allowing it to feel, uh, its environment,
- 00:19:36and interact and manipulate objects.
- 00:19:38Let's just test the pressure.
- 00:19:40-Okay. -This should max it out.
- 00:19:42Yep, yep. Maxed out.
- 00:19:43Just stretch out her hand. Okay, go.
- 00:19:45[Gildert] The reason the hand and the arm
- 00:19:47is able to move so fluidly
- 00:19:49is because of pneumatic actuators.
- 00:19:51They work using compressed air.
- 00:19:55You actuate one of these devices,
- 00:19:57and it kind of contracts
- 00:19:59and pulls on a tendon,
- 00:20:01so the actuation mechanism is very similar to a human muscle.
- 00:20:05It's just not yet quite as efficient.
- 00:20:09[Shannon] I'm adding the camera into the eyeball.
- 00:20:12Now I'm adding the cosmetic front of the eye.
- 00:20:15[Gildert] The eyes are super important to get right.
- 00:20:18Similar to our own vision system,
- 00:20:20they can see similar color spectrum,
- 00:20:22and they can also, because there's two cameras,
- 00:20:25they can have depth perception too.
- 00:20:26[Peck] Restarting facial detection.
- 00:20:30[Gildert] That actually looks pretty good.
- 00:20:32[Peck] Mm-hmm. Do you wanna come forward a little bit?
- 00:20:34Yeah.
- 00:20:35-I'm gonna restart her headboard. -[Gildert] Okay.
- 00:20:37That information
- 00:20:38is fed through a series of different A.I. algorithms.
- 00:20:42One algorithm is a facial detection system.
- 00:20:45She's definitely seeing me.
- 00:20:47[Peck] Yes, she is.
- 00:20:49I can tell she's looking at me,
- 00:20:50'cause she looked straight at me.
- 00:20:52Yeah, gaze tracking is working.
- 00:20:53Okay, cool. Now, do you wanna just smile?
- 00:20:54I'll see if she's actually capturing your emotion?
- 00:20:58[Gildert] If you're smiling,
- 00:20:59the corners of your mouth come up,
- 00:21:01your eyes open a little bit,
- 00:21:02and the A.I. system can actually detect
- 00:21:04how those landmarks have moved relative to one another.
- 00:21:08[Rana el Kaliouby] I think the moment in time
- 00:21:09we're at right now
- 00:21:10is very exciting
- 00:21:12because there's this field that's concerned
- 00:21:14about building human-like generalized intelligence,
- 00:21:17and sometimes even kind of surpassing human intelligence.
- 00:21:22[Daphne Koller] There's people out there
- 00:21:23who believe that this is on our immediate horizon.
- 00:21:27I don't.
- 00:21:28I think we're a long ways away
- 00:21:31from machines that are truly conscious
- 00:21:35and think on their own.
- 00:21:36She's responding. I can see her face changing.
- 00:21:39[synth] You look happy.
- 00:21:41-Good. -Mm-hmm.
- 00:21:42I'm gonna look sad.
- 00:21:45You look sad.
- 00:21:47Okay, good.
- 00:21:48[Peck] We have actually configured
- 00:21:50a lot of A.I. algorithms on the back end
- 00:21:52that give the robot
- 00:21:53the capabilities of recognizing people,
- 00:21:55detecting emotion,
- 00:21:56recognizing gestures and poses that people are making.
- 00:22:00It then responds in various ways
- 00:22:02with its environment.
- 00:22:04[Gildert] Bring up her node graph
- 00:22:05so you can see what's running in her brain.
- 00:22:08Yeah, let's see all the online modules.
- 00:22:10The chatbot, emotion detection,
- 00:22:12object detection...
- 00:22:14Wonderful. Gaze tracking...
- 00:22:15[Gildert] The body, in a way, is the easy part.
- 00:22:19Creating the mind is a lot harder.
- 00:22:21[Downey] Creating the mind is more than hard.
- 00:22:24It's basically impossible,
- 00:22:25at least for now,
- 00:22:27and maybe forever,
- 00:22:28because a mind is not just knowledge,
- 00:22:30or skill, or even language,
- 00:22:32all of which a machine can learn.
- 00:22:34The part that makes us really human is consciousness;
- 00:22:37an awareness, a sense of being,
- 00:22:39of who we are
- 00:22:40and how we fit in time and space around us.
- 00:22:43A human mind has that...
- 00:22:45and memory.
- 00:22:47"I remember the experience of buying a new pencil case
- 00:22:50and the supplies to go in it,
- 00:22:51getting all those new little things
- 00:22:53that smelled nice,
- 00:22:54and were all clean and colorful."
- 00:22:56If you think about how people work,
- 00:22:59it's very unusual for you to meet a person
- 00:23:01that doesn't have a backstory.
- 00:23:02I can use all the data that I have about myself
- 00:23:05to try and craft something that has my memories,
- 00:23:09it has my same mannerisms,
- 00:23:10and it thinks and feels the way I do.
- 00:23:18I would like them to become their own beings,
- 00:23:20and to me,
- 00:23:22creating the copy is a way of pushing the A.I. further
- 00:23:26towards making it a realistic human
- 00:23:28by having it be a copy of a specific human.
- 00:23:31I remember going to Bolton Town Center
- 00:23:35quite often.
- 00:23:36We just called it "Town."
- 00:23:39[Gildert] The basic idea
- 00:23:41is you send in a large amount of text data,
- 00:23:43and the system learns correlations between words,
- 00:23:47and the idea
- 00:23:48is that the synth could use one of these models
- 00:23:50to kind of blend together an idea of a memory
- 00:23:53that may have happened or may not have happened,
- 00:23:55so it's a little bit of an artistic way
- 00:23:58of recreating memories.
- 00:23:59I remember going into WH Smith.
- 00:24:02It had a very distinct smell that I can still recall.
- 00:24:06[Gildert] So by giving them these backstories now,
- 00:24:10we believe that we will be able to learn in the future
- 00:24:13how they can create their own memories
- 00:24:15from their experiences.
- 00:24:18[Bran Ferren] I love the idea
- 00:24:19that there are passionate people
- 00:24:20who are dedicating their time and energy
- 00:24:24to making these things happen.
- 00:24:25Why?
- 00:24:26Because if and when it does happen,
- 00:24:28it's going to be because of those passionate people.
- 00:24:31We talk about the computer revolution
- 00:24:33like it's done.
- 00:24:34It's barely begun.
- 00:24:37We don't understand
- 00:24:38where the impact of these technologies will be
- 00:24:41over the next five, ten,
- 00:24:4220, 30, 50, 100 years.
- 00:24:44If you think it's exciting and confusing now,
- 00:24:48fasten your seatbelts,
- 00:24:50because it hasn't begun.
- 00:24:51What is your name?
- 00:24:53My name is Holly.
- 00:24:55What is your name?
- 00:25:00Hmm.
- 00:25:01[Gildert] Of course there's that unknown,
- 00:25:02like are we gonna run into a problem
- 00:25:04with trying to recreate a mind
- 00:25:06that no one's thought of yet?
- 00:25:07My name is Nadine.
- 00:25:10Interesting.
- 00:25:11I am glad to see you.
- 00:25:13[Downey] Even if we do one day figure out
- 00:25:15how to create a virtual mind,
- 00:25:17it's not just the science.
- 00:25:18There's also the ethics.
- 00:25:20What kind of rights will the robots have?
- 00:25:22Can we imbue it with good values,
- 00:25:24make sure it's unbiased?
- 00:25:26What if breaks the law or commits a crime?
- 00:25:28Are we responsible for our synths?
- 00:25:31[el Kaliouby] There are big ethical challenges
- 00:25:33in the field of A.I.
- 00:25:35I believe that as a community of A.I. innovators
- 00:25:38and thought leaders,
- 00:25:39we have to really be at the forefront
- 00:25:41of enforcing and designing
- 00:25:45these best practices and guidelines
- 00:25:47around how we build and deploy ethical A.I.
- 00:25:50I like to say that artificial intelligence
- 00:25:52should not be about the artificial,
- 00:25:54it should be about the humans.
- 00:25:56You look angry.
- 00:25:57Landmarks are registering.
- 00:25:59[Ferren] I think it's perfectly reasonable
- 00:26:02to have a set of rules that govern ethical behavior
- 00:26:05when you are dealing with technologies
- 00:26:08that can have direct impact into people's lives
- 00:26:11and their families and the future.
- 00:26:13[Gildert] The vision's very ambitious for this.
- 00:26:15We'd like to think that that is a 10- to 20-year mission.
- 00:26:19You might say we're somewhere like
- 00:26:20five to 10% of the way along.
- 00:26:23Why is her arm doing that?
- 00:26:25It's almost like it's not clearing the buffer.
- 00:26:28Yeah... interesting.
- 00:26:31Let's just restart you so your arm goes--
- 00:26:33Oh, wait, it's going back down again.
- 00:26:36Okay, that's good.
- 00:26:37Okay.
- 00:26:38How do you feel today, Nadine?
- 00:26:40It feels good to be a synth.
- 00:26:43Nice.
- 00:26:43"It feels good to be a synth."
- 00:26:45[Gildert] The synths are not mobile at the moment,
- 00:26:47they can't move around,
- 00:26:48they can't walk yet.
- 00:26:49That's something we're going to be adding in
- 00:26:51within the next couple of years.
- 00:26:53The grand goal
- 00:26:54is to make these into their own beings
- 00:26:56with their own volition and their own rights.
- 00:27:01There are these moments you can have
- 00:27:03where you really feel something that's unusual.
- 00:27:06It's surprising.
- 00:27:08I was adjusting the synth's hair,
- 00:27:11and then she suddenly, like, smiled,
- 00:27:13and opened her mouth a little bit,
- 00:27:15like, you know, like I'd just tickled her or something.
- 00:27:18It was just, like, synchronous with what I was doing.
- 00:27:21[Downey] In some ways,
- 00:27:23Suzanne's vision is already coming alive.
- 00:27:25She's making a connection, albeit small, with a machine.
- 00:27:28Isn't that something?
- 00:27:30[Domingos] I think A.I. is part of evolution.
- 00:27:32The same evolution
- 00:27:33that led from bacteria to animals,
- 00:27:34and has led people to create technology,
- 00:27:37has led them to create A.I.
- 00:27:38In some ways, we're still in the very early infancy
- 00:27:41of this new age.
- 00:27:43[Downey] Will we ever create intelligent life
- 00:27:45here on Earth...
- 00:27:47or maybe we'll find it out there first?
- 00:27:57So I'm on my way
- 00:27:58to the SETI Institute headquarters
- 00:28:00in Mountain View,
- 00:28:01and, and I'm gonna show, uh, what the A.I. system found
- 00:28:06in the data that we collected.
- 00:28:07I'm excited. I'm a little nervous too.
- 00:28:18[Tarter] We need to be able to follow up in real time...
- 00:28:20[Diamond] Mm-hmm.
- 00:28:21[Tarter] ...as closely as we can,
- 00:28:22so that a signal that's there
- 00:28:24is still gonna be there when we go back to look for it,
- 00:28:27and we can then classify it.
- 00:28:28Jill Tarter is really a legend
- 00:28:30in this whole field of SETI research.
- 00:28:34Also really a pioneer as a woman astronomer.
- 00:28:39The character played by Jodie Foster in Contact,
- 00:28:42is based, at least in the first half of that movie,
- 00:28:44on Jill Tarter.
- 00:28:45[Tarter] People often talk
- 00:28:47about finding a needle in a haystack
- 00:28:49as being a difficult task,
- 00:28:51but the SETI task is far harder.
- 00:28:54If I got out of bed every morning
- 00:28:57thinking, "This is the day we're gonna find the signal,"
- 00:28:59I have pretty good odds
- 00:29:01I'm gonna go to bed that night disappointed.
- 00:29:05I don't get up in the morning thinking that.
- 00:29:08What I do get up in the morning thinking
- 00:29:10is that today, I'm going to figure out
- 00:29:12how to do this search better,
- 00:29:14do new things,
- 00:29:16do things you could not do in the past.
- 00:29:19Early on, the technology just wasn't there...
- 00:29:21Mm-hmm.
- 00:29:22...and now we're doing something
- 00:29:23that we've never been able to do.
- 00:29:25I'm excited.
- 00:29:30-Hello? -Oh, hey!
- 00:29:31-Look who's here! -How are ya?
- 00:29:33-Good to see you! -Hi, Graham.
- 00:29:34-Nice to see you. -Nice to see you.
- 00:29:36Likewise. Good to see you too.
- 00:29:37-Hey, Bill. -It's been a couple of whole days?
- 00:29:39-I know! [laughs] -Thanks for coming down.
- 00:29:41-My pleasure, I'm excited. -Yeah.
- 00:29:42We're thinking maybe you've got some news.
- 00:29:44Well, I wanna step you through it.
- 00:29:47Here you can kinda see
- 00:29:49the system is initially very active.
- 00:29:50It's all lit up,
- 00:29:52and very quickly,
- 00:29:53it starts to get a handle on what the shape,
- 00:29:56you know, what a signal from the Trappist-1 system should look like.
- 00:29:58Over on the far right is its areas of interest...
- 00:30:02What I'm showing here
- 00:30:03is a time-compressed video of the A.I. system
- 00:30:06looking at the signal we gathered.
- 00:30:09...and if you focus in on that,
- 00:30:11the A.I. system did indeed flag this one area,
- 00:30:14at that point, saying,
- 00:30:16-"Whoa, back up. Something just happened." -[Tarter] Ooh, wow.
- 00:30:18"That's not right,"
- 00:30:20and if you zoom in on the actual data,
- 00:30:22sure enough, there's that spike,
- 00:30:24so that is not from the Trappist system.
- 00:30:26That was generated by the Allen Telescope Array,
- 00:30:29but, you know, beyond that,
- 00:30:30this is an area that the A.I. system is saying,
- 00:30:32"This isn't quite what I would have expected."
- 00:30:36This is a little more interesting
- 00:30:37'cause there's more structure to it,
- 00:30:39and we should take its hints,
- 00:30:40and have a deeper analysis done of this part of the observation.
- 00:30:45We didn't write any code.
- 00:30:46We didn't tell it to... to look for spikes of power
- 00:30:50or anything else.
- 00:30:51We just said, "You know what, you figure out what's normal,
- 00:30:53and you let us know
- 00:30:54when something catches your attention,"
- 00:30:56which is exactly what it's doing there.
- 00:30:58It's encouraging,
- 00:30:59because already with just this one observation,
- 00:31:02we started to see some real progress
- 00:31:04in what the A.I. system can do compared to our own eyes,
- 00:31:07and that's just one observation.
- 00:31:09What about the next, and the next,
- 00:31:11and as it gets better
- 00:31:12with each new round of data that we collect?
- 00:31:14This is after two hours.
- 00:31:16I wonder how good it's gonna get after a hundred hours.
- 00:31:20Yeah.
- 00:31:21If we just routinely keep feeding the data from the A.T.A.
- 00:31:25into this model,
- 00:31:26it's gonna get better and better and better.
- 00:31:28We can just scale this out.
- 00:31:29-Right. -Absolutely.
- 00:31:30We just got smarter. Thank you, machine.
- 00:31:32Yes, exactly.
- 00:31:33[Tarter] I'm absolutely so excited.
- 00:31:35I'm really blown away.
- 00:31:36I can see the tools that are being built
- 00:31:41give us a new way of looking for things
- 00:31:43that we hadn't thought of,
- 00:31:44and things that we don't have to define up front,
- 00:31:47anomalies that the machines will find
- 00:31:51simply because they've looked at so much data.
- 00:31:55[Mackintosh] I do think we're going to find ET.
- 00:31:58I do think we are gonna find signs of civilization
- 00:32:02beyond Earth,
- 00:32:04and I do think that it's going to be A.I. that finds it.
- 00:32:12[Downey] Is there intelligent life out there?
- 00:32:14Can we create human-like machines?
- 00:32:18[Domingos] The odds are overwhelming
- 00:32:20that we will eventually be able to build an artificial brain
- 00:32:24that is at the level of the human brain.
- 00:32:26The big question is how long will it take?
- 00:32:30[Downey] Outer space,
- 00:32:32inner life...
- 00:32:34Age-old mysteries now seem more solvable.
- 00:32:37[Chris Botham] If we wanna go to Mars,
- 00:32:38if we wanna populate other planets,
- 00:32:40these types of things require these advanced technologies.
- 00:32:42[Downey] Moonshots, yeah,
- 00:32:45but also other pressing problems,
- 00:32:47like...
- 00:32:48-[gasps of shock] -All five! Whoa!
- 00:32:51[Downey] ...the mind and body.
- 00:32:52[Tim Shaw] Are you working today?
- 00:32:55[beeping]
- 00:32:56It's wonderful.
- 00:32:59[Downey] Adaptation...
- 00:33:00[Jim Ewing] I'm thinking and doing
- 00:33:01and getting instant response.
- 00:33:03It makes it feel like it's part of me.
- 00:33:05[Downey] Work...
- 00:33:06Action!
- 00:33:07[Downey] ...and creativity...
- 00:33:09These types of technologies can help us do our tasks better.
- 00:33:11Three, two, one.
- 00:33:13[computer voice] Autonomous driving started.
- 00:33:16[el Kaliouby] I believe if we do this right,
- 00:33:18these A.I. systems can truly, truly compliment
- 00:33:21what we do as humans.
- 00:33:22[Eric Warren] We use the A.I. tools
- 00:33:24to predict what the future not only is,
- 00:33:27but what it should be.
- 00:33:28Yo, what's up? This is will.i.am.
- 00:33:30[laughing]
- 00:33:31[Mark Sagar] This is the new version of you.
- 00:33:32The way it's looking so far is mind-blowing.
- 00:33:36[firefighter] Stay close, I'll lead.
- 00:33:38[Downey] Survival...
- 00:33:39[firefighter] Over here, I see him! Three yards at 2:00!
- 00:33:41[Martin Ford] I believe that artificial intelligence
- 00:33:43is really going to be
- 00:33:45the most important tool in our toolbox
- 00:33:47for solving the big problems that we face.
- 00:33:49[firefighter] I got him!
- 00:33:51[crowd chanting]
- 00:33:53[Downey] Conservation...
- 00:33:54The fact that we can look across the world
- 00:33:56and find where famine might happen
- 00:33:58four months from now,
- 00:34:00it's mind-blowing.
- 00:34:01[Downey] All out of the realm of sci-fi and magic,
- 00:34:05and now just science.
- 00:34:07Still hard problems, but now possible,
- 00:34:11with innovation,
- 00:34:13computing power, will, and passion...
- 00:34:15-[cheering] Yay! -Yes!
- 00:34:17There it is.
- 00:34:18[Downey] ...and yet, despite all that,
- 00:34:20a vestige of unknown endures.
- 00:34:23Who are we?
- 00:34:25What are we becoming?
- 00:34:27Every major technological change
- 00:34:30leads to a new kind of society,
- 00:34:32with new moral principles,
- 00:34:34and the same thing will happen with A.I.
- 00:34:36[Downey] Technology's changing us, for sure.
- 00:34:40The whole idea of what it means to be human
- 00:34:42is getting rewired.
- 00:34:44A.I. might be humanity's most valuable tool...
- 00:34:49...but it's also just that.
- 00:34:51A tool.
- 00:34:52[clattering]
- 00:34:55[Downey] What we choose to do with it...
- 00:34:59that's up to you and I.
- 00:35:08[Seth Shostak] If you could project yourself
- 00:35:10into the next millennium,
- 00:35:11a thousand years from now,
- 00:35:13would we look back on this generation and say,
- 00:35:15"Well, they were the last generation of Homo sapiens
- 00:35:18that actually ran the planet"?
- 00:35:20[James Parr] There's a lot of paranoia.
- 00:35:22The media's done a really good job
- 00:35:24of making people frightened,
- 00:35:25but A.I. is just a portrait of reality,
- 00:35:29a very close portrait, but it isn't reality.
- 00:35:31It's just a bucket of probabilities.
- 00:35:33Where I think human beings will always have the edge
- 00:35:37are understanding other humans.
- 00:35:39It's going to take a long time
- 00:35:41before we have an A.I.
- 00:35:42that can understand all of the nuances
- 00:35:46and various layers of the human experience
- 00:35:48at a societal level.
- 00:35:50[Shostak] James Parr, thanks so very much for being with us.
- 00:35:52Great, thank you.
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