I’m sorry, Dave

"I'm sorry, Dave..."

How soon will artificial intelligence (AI) become a reality? No one knows for sure. When will robots have the abilities of humans? Some may think they do now. The Alexa on your desk appears to be self-aware based on “her” answers to your orders. However, don’t ask her to make pasta or drive you to the store. Scientists are working on those things, too. Perhaps your smart home will make pasta one day. When programmers finally work out all the bugs, you may end up riding in the back of a self-driving car. Until they do, however, we’d rather walk or ride a bike.

Nevertheless, there are those who think we’re minutes away from AI. There’s one BIG problem, however. The human brain is light-years ahead of the robotic brain in ability. Yes, there are computers that can beat humans in a game of chess, but humans can do something that robots are incapable of: The human brain is predictive. Robot brains rely solely on programmed memory installed to make them operate in certain ways to do calculations and physical functions.

If they ever do build a robot that can actually think for itself, they will need to make sure it operates using Isaac Asimov’s many decades-old “Three Laws of Robotics.” For those unfamiliar with Asimov's Laws:

1.    A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2.    A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3.    A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Despite scientists' high hopes to the contrary, AI just comes up way short of taking over the world. To quote Hal 9000 in the movie 2001—A Space Odyssey, “I’m sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.”