Artifical Intelligence is the area of computer science focusing on creating machines that can engage on behaviors that humans consider intelligent. The ability to create intelligent machines has intrigued humans since ancient times, and today with the advent of the computer and 50 years of research into AI programming techniques, the dream of smart machines is becoming a reality. Researchers are creating systems which can mimic human thought, understand speech, beat the best human chessplayer, and countless other feats never before possible.
With the the meaning defined it is clear that humans want to create, even though we can create through procreation I believe man wants to create something that will last forever. With the advancement of artificial intelligence man can create an equal or superior being. This brings an ethical question into play, should man limit the amount machine can learn? A popular sentient robot is Data, an android from the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was built with the capacity to learn and grow from his experiences but was never completed and lacks emotions. He has the processing capability to be good since he was created that way but also has the capability to be bad. Since his struggle is to become more human, a common theme in most Star Trek series with several characters, would it be wrong to limit his capability of learning? This is only one character from one science fiction piece but there are many that go horribly wrong such as The Matrix and The Terminator. This is a topic I will further discuss in my paper. I have found another group dedicated to further research artificial intelligence. JAIR
