Computers with a heart 人工智能：別樣的伴侶
Her, a movie written and directed by US director Spike Jonze, won the Oscar for Best Original screenplay. It explores the romantic relationship between a man and his computer’s operating system.
由美國導(dǎo)演斯派克•瓊斯自編自導(dǎo)的電影《她》斬獲了本屆奧斯卡最佳原創(chuàng)劇本獎。該片講述了一個男人與電腦操作系統(tǒng)間的浪漫愛情故事。
The story takes place in the near future where virtual assistants are a common aspect of daily life. One day, Theodore, the protagonist, purchases a new-generation operating system. The system, which calls itself Samantha, is on Theodore’s computer and his smartphone. He carries the latter around in his shirt pocket so that Smanthat’s camera-eye can peek out at the world.
故事發(fā)生在不久的將來，人工智能助手已然成為人們?nèi)粘Ｉ钪械囊徊糠?。一天，該片男主角托姆布雷購買了新一代操作系統(tǒng)——薩曼莎，并將其安裝在電腦和智能手機上。他將智能手機放在襯衫口袋中隨身攜帶，這樣薩曼莎就可以透過攝像頭洞察到外面的世界。
Over time, Samantha learns and grows, discovering her own needs and desires and forming her own personality. Before long, Theodore is introducing her to others as his girlfriend.
隨著時間的推移，薩曼莎在不斷學(xué)習(xí)和成長中逐漸產(chǎn)生了需求和欲望，并形成了自己的個性。不久以后，托姆布雷便將她以“女友”的身份介紹給別人。
The movie has captured people’s imagination. Can consciousness exist without a blood-and-flesh physical entity? Will Samantha-like artificial intelligence (AI) with human emotions be a reality some day?
電影的播出引發(fā)人們無盡遐想：離開血肉之軀的意識能夠存活嗎?將來，像薩曼莎這樣擁有人類情感的人工智能助手真的能夠成為現(xiàn)實么?
Ray Kurzweil, the world’s leading AI visionary and Google’s director of engineering, predicts we could have Samantha-like girlfriends or boyfriends by 2029.
全球人工智能領(lǐng)域領(lǐng)軍人、谷歌工程總監(jiān)雷•庫茲韋爾曾預(yù)測，到2029年我們就能擁有像薩曼莎這樣的男/女朋友。
Kurzweil popularized the idea of “the Singularity” — the point in the future when humans merge with machines. When that time comes, machines will be so intelligent that they will make technology advance in a way we humans won’t be able to understand unless we connect our brains to machines.
庫茲韋爾普及了“奇點”的理念——未來人類將進入技術(shù)奇點，屆時人類將與機器合二為一。當(dāng)技術(shù)奇點時代來臨，人工智能技術(shù)發(fā)展迅猛，人類必須將大腦與機器相連才能理解它們。
Distant future?
未來遙遠嗎?
In a post on his website, Kurzweil discussed the technological implications of Her. He said that Samantha would happen in 2029, “when the leap to human-level AI would be reasonably believable”.
庫茲韋爾在個人網(wǎng)站上探討了電影《她》所蘊含的科技元素。他說，2029年，像薩曼莎這樣的故事情節(jié)很可能發(fā)生，“那時，這種達到人類水平的人工智能將不再是天方夜譚”。
Mars Cyrillo, executive director at technology company CI&T, echoes Kurzweil’s optimism in an article he wrote for VentureBeat.com:
庫茲韋爾曾在知名科技博客網(wǎng)站VentureBeat.com上發(fā)表文章，對未來人工智能發(fā)展表示看好。而CI&T科技公司執(zhí)行董事馬爾斯•西里絡(luò)(音譯)也十分贊同他的觀點。他表示：
“If we assume that everything that makes us human comes from our brains and our interactions with other brains and with our environment, there’s no reason to believe that, in the future, computers we build to simulate the brain wouldn’t exhibit human-like behavior.”
“如果我們假設(shè)人之所以為人，完全依仗于人類的大腦，以及大腦與其他大腦和環(huán)境之間的交流，那么，我們就有理由相信，我們模擬人腦制造出來的電腦將來也能夠做出類似的人類行為。”
Cyrillo also shares Kurzweil’s belief that by 2045 we’ll have molecule-sized computers inside our bodies and brains, tasked with protecting our health and enhancing our cognitive powers. Our brains could connect to the cloud in order to get their abilities extended.
同庫茲韋爾一樣，西里絡(luò)也相信到2045年，我們會制造出可安裝在人體和大腦內(nèi)的分子級電腦，達到呵護健康和提高認(rèn)知能力的目的。我們的大腦可以連接到“云”，從而拓展大腦的能力。
You might think it’s impossible for that to happen in just a couple of decades, but Cyrillo says we shouldn’t think linearly because our technology evolves exponentially.
你或許會想，在短短幾十年內(nèi)這樣的事情根本不可能發(fā)生，但是西里絡(luò)表示，我們不能線性思考，因為科技正在突飛猛進。
“In 30 years, Apple managed to build a phone whose computational capacity is almost 200 million times more powerful than the first Macintosh,” Cyrillo wrote. “Projecting 30 years from now, the idea that we’ll have a molecule-sized computer, some billion times more powerful than the iPhone of today, isn’t as crazy as you may think.”
“短短30年的時間，蘋果公司研制出計算能力比第一代蘋果機幾乎快兩億倍的一款手機，”西里絡(luò)寫道，“這樣說來，預(yù)計從現(xiàn)在開始的30年內(nèi)，研制出比iPhone強大數(shù)十億倍的分子級電腦，也并不是什么瘋狂的想法。”
With the development of quantum computers and serious advances in neuroscience that are already happening, Cyrillo says he believes we’ll have examples of strong AI in less than 30 years, or at least AI agents that task themselves with learning all about our universe and its mysteries.
隨著量子計算機的發(fā)展和神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)學(xué)的突飛猛進，西里絡(luò)相信用不了30年，我們就能夠研制出功能強大的人工智能樣本;或至少能夠研制出用來探索宇宙奧秘的人工智能。
