Tatyana Chernigovskaya: the planet is on the verge of a battle between two intelligences — natural and artificial

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Nowadays, people resemble aliens. They found themselves in a new unknown world where everything is mixed up. One of the main tasks of humanity is to understand how to live in these conditions. This conclusion was drawn by Doctor of Biological and Philological Sciences, Professor, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Studies of St. Petersburg State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Tatiana Chernigovskaya at the lecture "Cognitive Challenges of the XXI Century: How to Preserve the Human Mind in the Age of Technology" at the National Centre RUSSIA.

"You can say that there have always been various scientific or civilizational breakthroughs that we have managed somehow. For example, we rode a donkey, and then we started flying on rockets. But where we are now is a completely different world. We don't know how to live in it. We found ourselves on a planet where the struggle of intellects begins. It has not yet unfolded in full force, but it is already rapidly approaching," said Tatiana Chernigovskaya.

According to her, the main player in the cognitive field is the neuron. Humans have 86 billion of them. There are hundreds of types of neurons, and these are unimaginable quantities. A single neuron can have tens of thousands of connections to other parts of the brain. If you multiply them, you get a quadrillion connections in the brain. Humanity simply cannot imagine anything more complicated. The brain is a real neural network that is constantly evolving. While people are talking, both interlocutors have it re-writing itself.

"In 1997, the first blow was dealt to humanity — a computer programme won a chess game from a current world champion. Back then, I said: there are games which are more complex. For example, the Go game is much more cunning. But even there, artificial intelligence won. I also thought there were games in which the machine was powerless, like poker, where bluffing, facial expressions, and hidden emotions were important. I thought: the programmes won't be able to do this. But I was wrong," said Tatiana Chernigovskaya.

She added that she gets goosebumps when she sees modern anthropomorphic robots. They have real, almost human skin. Their faces are capable of expressing sympathy, anger, suffering, love, shyness. Moreover, they are able to read human emotions — via analysing voice, movements, and facial expressions. "Danger is near," says Tatiana Chernigovskaya.

"Why did we get involved with this artificial intelligence at all? When it comes to just doing the hard work, I don't mind. Let it do it. Let it work in a mine, fly to Mars, let it fix the plumbing. But it began to do the most exquisite work. It is our competitor," said Tatiana Chernigovskaya.

She also reminded the audience that when a person doubts, they search. But there are big doubts that the AI has the same modus operandi. Therefore, the professor has a number of questions for AI. Can it say, "I'm not sure, I do not know"? Can it say, "I do not know," not because it is programmed that way, but for real? Can it make the right decisions, despite the counterarguments, as a human being? A human says, "No, I will do it that way," and wins. And then no one can explain why they were right.

"Let's say I'm a perfect programme. I have a brilliant memory. I know not only all the facts, but also how to handle them. I'll act like I really understand. But do I really understand? That's our dilemma. Because a huge number of procedures performed by natural intelligence are actually uncountable. And these are not "not yet computable," but generally uncomputable," concluded Tatiana Chernigovskaya.

Tatiana Chernigovskaya's lecture was held as part of the "Znanie.Science"  educational marathon. It unites more than five thousand schoolchildren, students, young scientists and winners of All-Russian Olympiads from 80 regions of Russia and Abkhazia.

The marathon is organized by the Russian society Znanie and Moscow Polytechnic University with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. The event is held as part of the Decade of Science and Technology.