Creating artificial intelligence through evolution
If we take an evolutionary approach to the creation of AI, we may run into some problems. Of course, it is an extremely appealing idea, as it has been proven to work in our “Earth experiment”. Somehow, life and intelligent behavior has emerged from the synergy between the emergence of so-called living systems, Darwinian evolution and interactions with the environment.
However a crucial issue is: Is there any shortcut in this approach?. In other words, will we have to ultimately simulate a whole universe to achieve this seemingly open-ended evolution that led to what we think of as intelligence? It might seem unlikely, but it is possible that our particular configuration is miraculous and was the only one that could lead to where we are now.
Meanings of artificial intelligence
In the mainstream media (and some of the notes linked to this one) the name AI is used to describe many recent advances in machine learning and notably deep learning. All the progress in that area is impressive, but I believe this is only part of the picture.