Seeing, Listening, and Thinking: Will androids ever be able to do these things?

A recent article in the New York Times piqued my interest over the Thanksgiving weekend. While not about androids specifically, it discussed the growing speed and accuracy of an artificial intelligence technique called “deep learning” or otherwise known as “neural nets” (as they resemble the neural connections of the human brain.) Some of us might recognize the term “neural net” from the android Lieutenant Commander Data of the Enterprise. How far are we from such an android?

Understandably, the computer programs of today are nowhere near the sophistication of a human mind. And while I was excited to read the article, it turns out there was a lot more progress in the “recognition” aspects of the computer programs (seeing and hearing) than there was about the thinking aspects.

As a side thought, I wonder whether the character trait of curiosity can ever be programmed. The android Data was portrayed to have levels of curiosity. One of our current Mars rovers is even named Curiosity. But will androids ever see something and think “Hmm… that looks interesting. Maybe I should investigate further.”