Top Student at Their Peak-Chapter 945 - 341: Using Mathematics to Bridge Reality
Not only Mr. Tian was shocked by Qiao Yu’s words. Zheng Xiweng next to him was also stunned by this statement.
Even if someone is not interested in science, years of exposure would make Zheng Xiweng understand a little of these things.
This also allowed him to comprehend some of what Qiao Yu said when communicating with those engineers.
Of course, he could only understand a portion. For instance, Qiao Yu was never satisfied with the progress of research on General Artificial Intelligence.
Today, he finally understood why Qiao Yu was unsatisfied.
To make machines understand consciousness, intent, and values through mathematics?
Listen to this, does it even sound like human talk?
So, not only does Qiao Yu want to ask why 1+1 equals 2, but also how 1+1 can express human emotions?
It sounds like a science fiction story.
Of course, Zheng Xiweng definitely wouldn’t interrupt at this time.
It’s just that when pouring tea, his hand paused slightly, then he nodded towards Mr. Tian with a normal expression, and then directly left Qiao Yu’s office.
However, this time he couldn’t help his curiosity. After returning to the adjacent cubicle, he opened his computer and began to observe what the two were discussing.
...
After Zheng Xiweng left, Tian Yanzhen had roughly digested Qiao Yu’s question and then slowly said, "An interesting idea."
After speaking, Tian Yanzhen paused and thought for a longer time before continuing to ask, "So you mean to use mathematics to represent intention and values?"
Even within the human brain, these things are ambiguous. How do you use the certainty of mathematics to define them?
Bayesian inference? Utility functions? Or is it your generalized modal functions? Even your Qiao Algebraic Geometry can’t possibly solve this problem, right?
If computers or machines truly understand intention and values, it would give birth to real self-consciousness!
I do not think this is a good idea. Especially before it has been validated by the Ethics of Science and Technology Committee!"
Tian Yanzhen said seriously.
An observing Zheng Xiweng also felt that this matter must be taken seriously.
Although he did not believe that if artificial intelligence had consciousness, it would truly give birth to something like Skynet in movies.
But letting machines develop consciousness always made him feel uneasy.
At this moment, Qiao Yu also began to explain: "No, no, no, you misunderstood. What I mean is to let mathematics express consciousness, not to let machines possess consciousness.
Alright, although I did have such an idea before, given the current situation, it’s still very difficult. Those engineers find it hard to understand what I mean.
I feel they have already fallen into a mode of inertial thinking. They only think about how to optimize machines to fully learn those things, which I believe is wrong.
For example, reward functions in reinforcement learning, utility functions in decision theory—these are all externally assigned.
They merely preset a static, quantifiable value scale. But genuine intentions and values emerge internally and evolve dynamically.
Hence, deeper mathematical structures are needed. Just think, if we can solve this problem, mathematics will truly have broken through its original shackles."
When Qiao Yu sincerely spoke these words, Zheng Xiweng clearly felt that Tian Yanzhen was persuaded.
Mathematics breaking through its original shackles?
Zheng Xiweng felt this was nonsense.
The fact is, mathematics is already difficult enough. Not to mention university, even high school mathematics has started to reform in recent years, with students needing to learn more and more difficult content.
It’s unavoidable, as now in the third year of university, one must come into contact with Qiao Algebraic Geometry content. But to study Qiao Algebraic Geometry, a deep understanding of many abstract mathematical concepts is needed beforehand.
Even if only a minor part, one must also come into contact with some aspects of the Langlands Conjecture, which is extremely challenging for undergraduates.
In short, now many serious universities have already started to formally advise examinees to carefully consider choosing a mathematics major.
Zheng Xiweng can’t quite imagine what will happen if mathematics suddenly advances even further so quickly.
Will the future students who choose mathematics go mad?
Sure enough, after a long time, Tian Yanzhen hesitantly asked, "If I am not mistaken, do you mean to achieve the precise capture of meaning by mathematics?"
Qiao Yu nodded confidently and said, "You can understand it like this, Director Tian. Moreover, I always remember your teaching, that mathematics should be promoted and expanded.
Therefore, I am more willing to define this idea as making mathematics a bridge connecting the objective world and the human world of values in the future.
Of course, the external manifestation of this change would probably be the advent of General Artificial Intelligence! In the future, our artificial intelligence will no longer be just foolish search and integration tools.
Nor will they just be chess-playing specialists. They will have insights in various fields and possess a stream of consciousness with a morality level above the social average.
Their values will be anchored to mainstream social values. The meaning of their existence will be to maintain and promote the development of Earth’s human civilization."
Qiao Yu said resolutely.
There’s no other choice; this level of research requires review by the Academic Ethics Committee.
Currently, there is still debate internally about how to develop artificial intelligence or in which direction it should develop.
Thanks to many AI-related sci-fi movie mainframe systems that often think of exterminating humans, many people have remained extremely cautious about the development of artificial intelligence.
But this obviously isn’t within Qiao Yu’s range of consideration.
