Re: Definition
This is always the problem when discussing AI and it's properties and implications, at some point you have to hand it all over to philosophers to try to sort something out. Empirically a waste of time because philosophers never agree on anything.
"Understanding" is indeed a complex concept but I'd say one aspect is the ability to take some knowledge and apply it differently but consistent with the principles behind that bit of knowledge.
An example could be deriving the formula of the volume of a sphere from the formula for the area of a circle, without understanding what circles and spheres are, such a derivation would be impossible.
..."artificial intelligence" is effectively an oxymoron...
Wouldn't argue with that, it's too late now but I'd much prefer the term "Machine Intelligence" precisely to avoid the conflation with human intelligence which is not a viable or sensible goal for research.
Intelligences moulded for the task rather than emulating the general purpose intelligence humans have would seem a more probable path.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
