Features

The previous KDnuggets poll asked:
When will robots be smarter than humans?
About half of 361 voters said "never". The other choices were

in 25 years	12%
in 50 years	14%
in 100 years	13%
in 1000 years or more	7%
never	49%
don't know	5%

The poll generated a large number of interesting comments, both for and against.

Gabor Melli examined a question of how soon a data mining system can win a KDD Cup. Kosmas Karadimitriou pointed the fallacy of linear progress, and argued that technology does advance at exponential rate, making robotic "smartness" inevitable. A french visitor suggested that if robots will become smarter, they will eradicate humans, and probably start with the Americans. Another said -- "Find me a computer program that can appreciate the love of a good woman!"

Jim Krueger asked about collective smartness vs individual smartness. Some readers argued that robo sapiens is already smarter than homo sapiens, while other argued that this will never happen.

See full results and many interesting comments on www.kdnuggets.com/polls/2002/robots_smarter_than_humans.htm

From the Editor:

I think it is inevitable that eventually researchers will be able to create robots that are "smarter" than humans. The important question is:

can we design those smart robots to be responsible to us?