By Cailin Reid
The students and faculty member waited in anticipation as the microphone was being set up for Dr. Judea Pearl to speak about his $250,000 artificial intelligence award.
On May 3, Pearl arrived at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS) to speak about the 2011 A.M. Turing Award he received for his work in artificial intelligence. It is one of the most prestigious honors in computing.
“Can machines think?” he asked with a grin when he began his Power Point.
Pearl spoke about how he provided mathematical formulas to see what machines could do and how far they could go. These formulas allow computers to discover links between pieces of data, no matter how vague. Because of his work and the work of others in his field, it is now possible for computers to think as humans do.
Yet none of this would have been possible without the help of Alan Turing, a mathematician and computer scientist. He began with what computing was really about, and so the discussion began.
Thus creating the Turing Test. The test consists of one person, the interrogator, who will have to determine whether the entity behind the glass is a human or a computer, and if he is unable to tell the difference then machines can think.
“Of course machines can think in terms of doing operations that if you were to do would require thinking, like math or chess,” Pearl said.
But philosophers disagreed with Pearl and said that computers simply follow instructions, that it cannot emulate humans because they have imaginations and creativity.
“You have to see things in your own eyes. You have to experiment because science is driven by experimentation,” Pearl said.
Toward the end of his discussion, Pearl was asked about his thoughts on Siri, the intelligent personal assistant featured on the iPhone 4S.
His response shocked everyone.
“Who is he?” Pearl said.
Not knowing that Siri was created with the help of his mathematical discoveries, he played around with it for a bit.
“What is three squared?”
“Nine,” Siri replied.
“I love you,” Pearl said.
“I hope you don’t say that to all the smart phones,” Siri replied.
And although it was fun to hear Siri talk, it was also amazing for students who thanked Pearl for his work because they love their phones.
“I’m thankful that he and the others that helped accomplished their work on artificial intelligence because I know that myself and others enjoy our iPhones,” said Noy Baraness, a junior at DPMHS.
Pearl has fulfilled his 30 years of work and many wondered if it was agonizing.
“After 30 years I discovered something that I haven’t ever seen before and that is happiness,” Pearl said.
