6 Human vs. machine
This chapter covers
- An overview of biological brains
- Considerations about human thoughts and memories
- Reflections about common sense, imagination, intuition, and creativity
- Image reasoning
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
Can machines match or surpass human creativity? In this chapter, we will explain that even if AI systems have shown impressive prowess in pattern recognition and data analysis, the essence of human ingenuity remains an enigma that is hard to replicate with algorithms. We will examine a few facets of human cognition to highlight what it truly means to be imaginative, intuitive, curious, and creative, demonstrating that while current AI can considerably augment our abilities, it can’t emulate many characteristics that are fundamental to the human brain’s capacity to imagine the unknown, to synthesize the abstract, and to derive inspiration from our thoughts and emotions. We will also demonstrate that true understanding is a prerequisite for vision, shedding light on the current constraints of AI algorithms in recognizing objects and their considerable distance from achieving a human-like perception of objects and scenes.