From July, 16 to 19, 2016 an international conference Annual International Conference on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures – BICA-2016, the co-organiser of which was MEPhI, has been held in New York.

The scientific forum united leading scientists, conducting their research in the field of artificial intelligence. One of its main topics was the report of the conference’s moderator Alexei Samsonovich, a professor in the Cybernetics Department, who told about his plans to “build” an artificial brain, capable of reproducing principles and mechanisms of human emotional state, in MEPhI.

A.Samsonovich, a professor in MEPhI Cybernetics Department

The scientist’s report has provoked real interest among international experts, because the approach can become a major technological breakthrough in the field of creation of the artificial intelligence, capable of changing many spheres of human life. Information about MEPhI development has caused a massive public outcry in the world scientific and media society.

One of many publications of that kind was the article on DigitalTrends.com portal. Famous Internet-journalist, who researches technology influence on a human, Dyllan Furness considers Russia to be on the verge of a “major breakthrough” in that sphere.

Dyllan Furness – Berlin-based writer, originally from America, journalist-researcher in the field of new technology, author of many popular scientific articles

Last week Professor Alexei Samsonovich from MEPhl Cybernetics Department said at an artificial intelligence conference in New York City, “We are on the verge of a major breakthrough”.

In the past six months, we’ve seen artificial intelligence master the board game Go, write a short film script, and infiltrate Snapchat filters. Each of these achievements is impressive in its own way. Together, they show how quickly the artificial intelligence is advancing. But what was this breakthrough Samsonovich hinted at in New York? Digital Trends reached out to him to find out.

In the last half-century, since the notion of artificial intelligence was officially coined, the term has created some buzz but has not fulfilled the hype, according to Samsonovich. “A major breakthrough was expected to happen from year to year, but it did not,” he told Digital Trends. “As a result, the idea was discredited. There are reasons to think that now we are really close to the breakthrough, as never before. And as an indirect evidence, the last few years showed rapid exponential progress in this sphere, in terms of the number of publications as well as the money invested by governments and companies.”

With this increased interest and investment comes significant progress, including an advance that Samsonovich thinks will allow machines to feel. “Primarily this entails demonstrating that a machine is capable of feeling human emotions and exhibiting human-level socially emotional intelligence in a variety of settings,” he said.

Samsonovich claims that this doesn’t necessarily involve consciousness. In fact, he thinks consciousness is impossible to ever validate in another subject other than oneself, and thus it’s too vague to be a reliable marker.

“What I am talking about here is limited to behavior, internal organization of the system and its internal dynamics, like neurophysiology or software,” he said. “Today we can build a machine that behaves as if it had human-like feelings. When you see this kind of behavior exhibited consistently over time in many circumstances you will believe that this entity is alive and is in a social contact with you, and you will interact with it accordingly.”

These emotionally intelligent machines are emerging right now and will be a reality within the next few years, according to Samsonovich, who presented his idea for a kind of Turing test for emotional intelligence at the conference last week. Normally, the Turing test is considered passed if a person is unable to guess whether his co-player is a machine or a human. In Samsonovich’s case the idea is that the machine should have an emotional advantage over the average human player, which will manifest itself in players’ wish to rescue the machine first.

Over the next 18 months, the researcher and his team hope to develop Virtual Actor, an artificial intelligence capable of creating goals, making plans, and building social relationships with people.

But before that happens, we’ll need to change the way we — as humans — think.

“Today’s obstacles are mainly limited to psychological barriers,” he said. “We already have the necessary hardware and most of the necessary theoretical foundations. Still, people tend to think within the limits of popular paradigms, or not to think at all — just do what everybody else does or says.”

“People also hesitate to take risks,” Samsonovich continued. “Given that nearly all research in artificial intelligence today is motivated financially, it is hard for most of us to take seriously an idea of a bold commitment, based on a long-term expectation. Fortunately, now we do not need to wait for too long.”

View the original article http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/russia-ai-breakthrough/.