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General Discussion

Posted by Cristian Yanez
Cristian Yanez
491 Points

Serious AI

I have a question for you all. I want to learn to code, but the reason I want to learn is because I want to build real AI. Not simple AI like we've got today, but AI that thinks and learns like a human but at a much faster degree. Exactly what languages should I begin with? Thank you very much for your assistance, it is greatly appreciated.

Alexander Davison
Alexander Davison
65,469 Points

That ain't gonna be easy...

Probably only the best programmers in the world can make something like that (or not even!)...

You sure?!

That might be harder than making a compiler (your own programming language)

2 Answers

William Li
PLUS
William Li
Courses Plus Student 26,868 Points
William Li
William Li
Courses Plus Student 26,868 Points

This is certainly THE most difficult problem all AI/ML computer scientists/researchers are facing today. No one is able to find the answer yet, not even the brightest minds at NASA, Facebook, Google, Deepmind ... etc. I hate to break it to you, but this might be an impossible problem to solve in our lifetime. Asides from the tremendous technical difficulties, the primary reason why we haven't been able to build an AI that thinks like human is because, after centuries of neuroscience research, scientists were only managed to uncovered very little about how the human brain works, the inner working of the brain by and large remains a mystery to us. That presents a dilemma here, how can we build a AI program that mimics the functions of something that we don't fully understand?

I believe that human migration to Mars will become a reality way before the invention of a free-thinking Artificial intelligence.

Exactly what languages should I begin with?

This is an easy Question, Python is very commonly used in today's AI/ML work.

Alexander Davison
Alexander Davison
65,469 Points

Agreed :)

If I could, I would give you a best answer (sadly I can't)

Ryan S
Ryan S
27,276 Points
Ryan S
Ryan S
27,276 Points

Just to add on to William and Alex' responses, the biggest part of AI is the algorithms and logic needed even just to attempt to replicate human thinking and learning. Whether or not strong AI is possible is definitely a hot topic. But the programming language itself isn't as important as having a thorough understanding of the related mathematical concepts, although as William noted, Python seems to be very common in this area.

I'm not very knowledgeable about the subject, but as far as I understand at a minimum you need to be well-versed in computer science, linear algebra, calculus, probability theory, and control systems, not to mention (as William touched on) neural networks and even genetic algorithms. And if you really want to get into it, then even psychology, philosophy, and epistemology would be useful. But if you are truly interested in working in the advanced AI field, then pursuing graduate studies in computer science, mathematics, or a related field might be the best path forward.

But that being said, there are a lot of good MOOC's and other online resources with introductions to computational thinking, machine learning and AI.