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One of the most fascinating (perhaps most frightening?) aspects of AI is emerging properties. It refers to behavior that arises in a complex system when its individual components interact. The thing that makes this so fascinating is that they cannot be predicted. This is essentially learning and the machines can do it autonomously and randomly. This is why, even at this point, developers often don't fully understand what is happening at the core of the system. And yet they plunge bravely (recklessly?) forward. They are in essence "growing" alien beings that could become autonomous.
Here's what Bing has to say about emergent properties:
Emergent properties refer to those properties that are entirely unexpected and include emergent phenomena in materials and emergent behavior in living creatures and complex systems. They arise from the collaborative functioning of a system, but do not belong to any one part of that system. In other words, emergent properties are properties of a group of items, whether insects, atoms, or buildings, that you would not find in any of the individual items; it is a bottom-up development of processes using lower-level components to accomplish a higher-level purpose.
- Human consciousness is often called an emergent property of the human brain. [Moderator Note] And of course does not understand consciousness at this time.
- No single neuron holds complex information like self-awareness, hope, or pride.
- Nonetheless, the sum of all neurons in the nervous system generates complex human emotions like fear and joy, none of which can be attributed to a single neuron.
- The complex interconnections among the parts give rise to qualities that belong only to the whole.
In summary, emergent properties arise from the collaborative interactions of system components, resulting in unexpected and higher-level properties that transcend the individual parts. Terrific or frightening? "I can't do that Hal.".
What are your thoughts? Send them to me at jpa@audettecollection.com. And invite your friends and relatives to join. The more minds we have gathered here the more we will all learn.
Your Striving Moderator,
John
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