A U.S. computer expert predicts computers will have the same intellectual capacity as humans by 2020.
Ray Kurzweil was one of 18 people chosen by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to speak on future technological challenges, The Independent reported. He said that in the future artificial intelligence will advance far beyond human intelligence.
"Three-dimensional, molecular computing will provide the hardware for human-level 'strong artificial intelligence' by the 2020s," he said. "The more important software insights will be gained in part from the reverse engineering of the human brain, a process well under way. Already, two dozen regions of the human brain have been modeled and simulated."
Kurzweil's predictions are based on the assumption that the "law of accelerating returns" will continue in the development of artificial intelligence. Computer chip power has doubled every two years for the past half-century as a function of the accelerating return principal.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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