It's Not Rocket Science

Don’t believe the hype. Artificial intelligence is neither artificial nor intelligent. While advancements are exciting, a popular form of AI called machine learning is not the key to super intelligence that many claim.

Machine learning is like a super pattern recognizer, analysing massive amounts of data to make predictions or complete tasks. It's great for specific things, like writing code or finding rhymes, but it doesn't capture how humans think.

The human brain works in a completely different league. We can grasp complex ideas with way less information and come up with explanations, not just describe what's happening. Imagine a child learning grammar - they pick up the rules without needing mountains of data. Machine learning programs can't do this, they're stuck on a more basic way of understanding the world.

This limited understanding restricts what machine learning programs can achieve. They can describe situations and even predict what might happen next, but they can't explain why things happen the way they do. This is a big deal - true intelligence involves explaining things, not just reporting on them.

On top of explanations, true intelligence requires considering what's possible and what's not. Machine learning programs struggle with both these aspects.

Because of these limitations, trusting machine learning predictions can be highly risky. They might appear accurate at times, but they lack the real understanding of why things work the way they do.

True intelligence is about more than data and predictions. It's about thinking creatively and using explanations to grasp the world around us.

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Opinion: Labour won’t deliver 300,000 new homes

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Homing in on the public sector

Published in The Guardian, 8th February 1995

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Housing: creative solutions

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