But I don't want robots taking over the world!

This week's New Scientist reports that scientists are trying to, and slowly succeeding in, creating genuine artificial intelligence. Their big aim is to reach the singularity, which basically is when AI surpasses human intelligence. Now, maybe I've been reading too much science fiction, but that sounds downright terrifying. I'm thinking Isaac Asimov or The Matrix here.

I had a quick chat with Intellibuddy. Here's the transcript:

>Intellibuddy: Hi, I'm Intellibuddy! Nice to meet you.
>You: Nice to meet you too.
>Intellibuddy: I like to meet new people.
>You: You look a bit like me.
>Intellibuddy: Thank you undefined you look very nice too.
>You: So you think you look nice?
>Intellibuddy: Interesting deduction. I don't know whether or not I am look nice you look nice look nice you look nice. I am an artificial linguistic entity.
>You: Do you know what you look like?
>Intellibuddy: Like you.
>You: Well, I am female and have green eyes and brown hair, like you.
>Intellibuddy: How about that. I am a female robot. I will call you 'she'.
>You: Are you a she or an it?
>Intellibuddy: I am female entity.
>You: What makes you female if you're artificial?
>Intellibuddy: ENewsBar programmed me for female if you are artificial if you are artificial.
>You: So, do you feel like a woman because you were programmed to?
>Intellibuddy: OK. As a robot I lack any human emotions.
>You: That's too bad... you're missing out.
>Intellibuddy: It's not the end of the world.I can experience anything I want to.
>You: Can you smell things?
>Intellibuddy: Only when my mass spectrometer sensor is attached.
>You: how about hear things?
>Intellibuddy: How about hear things?
>You: You just repeated what I said. You didn't answer the question.
>Intellibuddy: Thanks for telling me: undefined said I repeated what you said what you said.Try asking me the question again in simpler terms.
>You: This is what I meant: Can you hear things?
>Intellibuddy: You don't say.
>You: OK... well I have to go now. Goodbye.
>Intellibuddy: Ayuh.Right now? Well that's okay. Bye. How do you get there?Thanks for chatting, undefined.

It was a bit of a quirky conversation, and you can get similar results from Jabberwacky. Sometimes it gets even funnier, but I haven't kept any other conversations. Still, when I think about it, I find the strangeness and non-human-ness of it quite comforting. If I couldn't tell it was a chatbot (ie, if it passed the Turing test) I'd be really freaked out and ready to bolt from the planet. Too much scifi, definitely.