Section III
Text B: Super-Intelligence and the Singularity
Part 1 Power of Words
Core Words
① augment [ɔːg'ment] vt./vi. (augmented/augmented/augmenting)
to make greater, more numerous, larger, or more intense; supplement
enlarge; increase
diminish; decrease
augmentative; augmentation
Example 1 We pay performance bonuses that augment your annual salary.
Example 2 She took a second job to augment her income.
② authoritarian [ɔːˌθɒrɪ'teəriən] adj.
of, relating to, or favoring blind submission to authority; of, relating to, or favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people
autocratic; imperious
clement; forbearing
authority; authoritarianism
Example 1 His management style has been criticized as authoritarian.
Example 2 Many people are now demanding a more democratic and less authoritarian form of government.
③ coalesce [ˌkəʊə'les] vi./vt. (coalesced/coalesced/coalescing)
to grow together; to unite into a whole; to unite for a common end; to arise from the combination of distinct elements; to cause to unite
fuse; combine; associate
sever; separate; split
coalescent; coalescence
coalesce into/with
Example 1 Gradually the different groups of people coalesced into one dominant racial group.
Example 2 They coalesce years of research, experience, and best practices into one roadmap for the future.
④ deride [dɪ'raɪd] vt. (derided/derided/deriding)
to laugh at or insult contemptuously
ridicule; mock
derisive; derisively; derision
deride somebody as something
Example 1 Critics derided the move as too little, too late.
Example 2 Some critics deride the senate as a retirement home for has-been politicians and party hacks.
⑤ ream [riːm] n.
a quantity of paper being 20 quires or variously 480, 500, or 516 sheets; a great amount (usually used in plural)
reams of
Example 1 Their specific task is to sort through the reams of information and try to determine what it means.
Example 2 He took reams of notes in class.
⑥ rupture ['rʌptʃə] n./vt./vi. (ruptured/ruptured/rupturing)
a crack or break in something; a break in good relations between people or countries; to break or burst; to damage or destroy (a relationship, situation, etc.)
break; tear; fracture
attach; bind
rupture of; rupture between; rupture with
Example 1 The century saw the formal rupture between East and West.
Example 2 Brutal clashes between squatters and police yesterday ruptured the city's governing coalition.
⑦ surveillance [sə'veɪl(ə)ns] n.
close watch kept over someone or something
oversight; supervision
surveil
surveillance of; under surveillance
Example 1 Police swooped on the home after a two-week surveillance operation.
Example 2 The suspects were kept under surveillance.
⑧ traction ['trækʃ(ə)n] n.
the force that causes a moving thing to stick against the surface it is moving along; the power that is used to pull something
drawing
tractive; tractor
gain traction
Example 1 The tires were bald and lost traction on the wet road.
Example 2 The idea of changing the structure of the school year is gaining traction.
⑨ transcend [træn'send] vt. (transcended/transcended/transcending)
to rise above or go beyond the normal limits of (something)
exceed; surpass
transcendent; transcendental; transcendentally; transcendence
Example 1 The beauty of her songs transcends words and language.
Example 2 She was able to transcend her own suffering and help others.
⑩ trivia ['trɪvɪə] n.
unimportant matters
pettiness; trifle
trivial; triviality
Example 1 The magazine was full of trivia and gossip.
Example 2 The two men chatted about such trivia as their favorite kinds of fast food.
⑪ usher ['Qʃə] n./vt./vi. (ushered/ushered/ushering)
an officer or servant who has the care of the door of a court, hall, or chamber; an officer who walks before a person of rank; one who escorts persons to their seats (as in a theater); to conduct to a place; to precede as an usher, forerunner, or harbinger; to cause to enter
guide
usher somebody in/into/to something
Example 1 She stood back and ushered him in.
Example 2 She ushered a new theory into the world.
⑫ vibrant ['vaɪbrənt] adj.
having or showing great life, activity, and energy; very bright and strong
vivacious; lively
lifeless; spiritless
vibrate; vibration; vibratory
Example 1 The streets of the capital are vibrant with color.
Example 2 Tom felt himself being drawn toward her vibrant personality.
⑬ vociferous [və(ʊ)'sɪf(ə)rəs] adj.
marked by or given to vehement insistent outcry
noisy; clamorous
quiet
vociferously; vociferousness
vociferous in
Example 1 He was a vociferous opponent of Conservatism.
Example 2 The minority population became more vociferous in its demands.
Words for Self-study
Please find and memorize the meanings and usages of the following words with the help of dictionaries, online resources and other references.
astronomy automate backlash catalyst churchyard
destine equivocal exult hype Hawking
mutate Nobel optimize overstate physician
physicist propensity understate
Part 2 Text
Super-Intelligence and the Singularity
In May 2014, Cambridge University physicist Stephen Hawking composed (penned) an article that set out to sound the alarm about the dangers of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence. Hawking, writing in the UK's The Independent along with co-authors who included Max Tegmark1 and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek2, both physicists at MIT, as well as computer scientist Stuart Russell of the University of California, Berkeley, warned that the creation of a true thinking machine "would be the biggest event in human history". A computer that exceeded human-level intelligence might be capable of "outsmarting financial markets, human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand". Dismissing all this as science fiction might well turn out to be "potentially our worst mistake in history".
All the technology I've described thus far—robots that move boxes or make hamburgers, arithmetics (algorithms) that creates music, write reports, or trade on Wall Street3—employ what is categorized as specialized or "narrow" artificial intelligence. Even IBM's Watson, perhaps the most impressive demonstration of machine intelligence to date, doesn't come close to anything that might reasonably be compared to general, human-like intelligence. Indeed, outside the realm of science fiction, all functional artificial intelligence technology is, in fact, narrow AI.
One of the primary arguments I've put forth here, however, is that the specialized nature of real-world AI doesn't necessarily represent a fetter (impediment) to the ultimate automation of a great many jobs. The tasks that occupy the majority of the workforce are, on some level, largely routine and predictable. As we've seen, rapidly improving specialized robots or machine learning arithmetic that churns through reams of data will eventually threaten enormous numbers of occupations at a wide range of skill levels. None of this requires machines that can think like people. A computer doesn't need to replicate the entire spectrum of your intellectual capability in order to displace you from your job; it only needs to do the specific things you are paid to do. Indeed, most AI research and development, and nearly all venture capital, continue to be focused on specialized applications, and there's every reason to expect these technologies to become dramatically more powerful and flexible over the coming years and decades.
Even as these specialized undertakings continue to produce practical results and attract investment, a far more daunting challenge lurks in the background. The quest to build a genuinely intelligent system—a machine that can conceive new ideas, demonstrate an awareness of its own existence, and carry on coherent conversations—remains the Holy Grail of artificial intelligence.
Fascination with the idea of building a true thinking machine traces its origin at least as far back as 1950, when Alan Turing4 published the paper that ushered in the field of artificial intelligence. In the decades that followed, AI research was subjected to a boom-and-bust cycle in which expectations repeatedly soared beyond any realistic technical foundation, especially given the speed of the computers available at the time. When disappointment inevitably followed, investment and research activity collapsed and long, sluggish (stagnant) periods that have come to be called "AI winters" ensued. Spring has once again arrived, however. The extraordinary power of today's computers combined with advances in specific areas of AI research, as well as in our understanding of the human brain, is generating a great deal of optimism.
James Barrat, the author of a recent book on the implications of advanced AI, conducted an informal survey of about two hundred researchers in human-level, rather than merely narrow, artificial intelligence. Within the field, this is referred to as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Barrat asked the computer scientists to select from four different predictions for when AGI would be achieved. The results: 42 percent believed a thinking machine would arrive by 2030, 25 percent said by 2050, and 20 percent thought it would happen by 2100. Only 2 percent believed it would never happen. Remarkably, a number of respondents wrote comments on their surveys suggesting that Barrat should have included an even earlier option—perhaps 2020.
Some experts in the field worry that another expectations bubble might be building. In an October 2013 blog post, Yann LeCun, the director of Facebook's newly created AI research lab in New York City, warned that "AI 'died' about four times in five decades because of hype: People made wild claims (often to impress potential investors or funding agencies) and could not deliver. Backlash ensued." Likewise, NYU professor Gary Marcus, an expert in cognitive science and a blogger for the New Yorker, has argued that recent breakthroughs in areas like deep learning neural networks, and even some of the capabilities attributed to IBM Watson, have been significantly overstated (over-hyped).
Still, it seems clear that the field has now acquired enormous momentum. In particular, the rise of companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon has propelled a great deal of progress. Never before have such wealthy (deep-pocketed) corporations viewed artificial intelligence as absolutely central to their business models—and never before has AI research been positioned so close to the interlinkage (nexus) of competition between such powerful entities. A similar competitive dynamic is unfolding among nations. AI is becoming requisite (indispensable) to militaries, intelligence agencies, and the surveillance apparatus in authoritarian states. Indeed, a downright (all-out) AI arms race might well be looming in the near future. The real question, I think, is not whether the field as a whole is in any real danger of another AI winter but, rather, whether progress remains limited to narrow AI or ultimately expands to Artificial General Intelligence as well.
If AI researchers do eventually manage to make the leap to AGI, there is little reason to believe that the result will be a machine that simply matches human-level intelligence. Once AGI is achieved, Moore's Law alone would likely soon produce a computer that exceeded human intellectual capability. A thinking machine would, of course, continue to enjoy all the advantages that computers currently have, including the ability to calculate and access information at speeds that would be incomprehensible for us. Inevitably, we would soon share the planet with something entirely unprecedented: a genuinely alien—and superior—intellect.
And that might well be only the beginning. It's generally accepted by AI researchers that such a system would eventually be driven to direct its intelligence inward. It would focus its efforts on improving its own design, rewriting its software, or perhaps using evolutionary programming techniques to create, test, and optimize augmentation (enhancements) to its design. This would lead to a repetitive (iterative) process of "regressive (recursive) improvement". With each revision, the system would become smarter and more capable. As the cycle accelerated, the ultimate result would be an "intelligence explosion"—quite possibly culminating in a machine thousands or even millions of times smarter than any human being. As Hawking and his collaborators put it, it "would be the biggest event in human history".
If such an intelligence explosion were to occur, it would certainly have dramatic implications for humanity. Indeed, it might well engender (spawn) a wave of disruption that would scale across our entire civilization, let alone our economy. In the words of futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, it would "rupture the fabric of history" and usher in an event—or perhaps an era—that has come to be called "the Singularity".
The Singularity
The first application of the term "singularity" to a future technology-driven event is usually credited to computer pioneer John von Neumann, who reportedly said sometime in the 1950s that "ever accelerating progress... gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue." The theme was recounted out in 1993 by San Diego State University mathematician Vernor Vinge, who wrote a paper entitled "The Coming Technological Singularity". Vinge, who is not given to understatement, began his paper by writing that "within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create supernatural (superhuman) intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended."
In astrophysics, a singularity refers to the point within a black hole where the normal laws of physics break down. Within the black hole's boundary, or event horizon, gravitational force is so intense that light itself is unable to escape its grasp. Vinge viewed the technological singularity in similar terms: It represents an intermittency (discontinuity) in human progress that would be fundamentally equivocal (opaque) until it occurred. Attempting to predict the future beyond the Singularity would be like an astronomer trying to see inside a black hole.
The baton next passed to Ray Kurzweil, who published his book The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology in 2005. Unlike Vinge, Kurzweil, who has become the Singularity's primary gospeller (evangelist), has no qualms about attempting to peer beyond the event horizon and give us a remarkably detailed account of what the future will look like. The first truly intelligent machine, he tells us, will be built by the late 2020s. The Singularity itself will occur sometime around 2045.
Kurzweil is by all accounts a brilliant inventor and engineer. He has founded a series of successful companies to market his inventions in areas like optical character recognition, computer-generated speech, and music synthesis. He's been awarded twenty honorary doctorate degrees as well as the National Medal of Technology and was inducted into the U.S. Patent Office's Hall of Fame. Inc. magazine once referred to him as the "rightful heir" to Thomas Edison5.
His work on the Singularity, however, is an odd mixture composed of a well-grounded and coherent narrative about technological acceleration, together with ideas that seem so speculative as to border on the absurd—including, for example, a heartfelt desire to resurrect his late father by gathering DNA from the churchyard (gravesite) and then regenerating his body using futuristic nanotechnology. A vibrant community, populated with brilliant and often colorful characters, has coalesced around Kurzweil and his ideas. These "Singularians" have gone so far as to establish their own educational institution. Singularity University, located in Silicon Valley, offers unlicensed(unaccredited) graduate-level programs focused on the study of exponential technology and counts Google, Genentech, Cisco, and Autodesk among its corporate sponsors.
Among the most important of Kurzweil's predictions is the idea that we will inevitably merge with the machines of the future. Humans will be augmented with brain implants that dramatically enhance intelligence. Indeed, this intellectual amplification is seen as essential if we are to understand and maintain control of technology beyond the Singularity.
Perhaps the most controversial and dubious aspect of Kurzweil's post-Singularity vision is the emphasis that its adherents place on the looming prospect of immortality. Singularians, for the most part, do not expect to die. They plan to accomplish this by achieving a kind of "longevity escape velocity"—the idea being that if you can consistently stay alive long enough to make it to the next life-prolonging innovation, you can conceivably become immortal. This might be achieved by using advanced technologies to preserve and augment your biological body—or it might happen by uploading your mind into some future computer or robot. Kurzweil naturally wants to make sure that he's still around when the Singularity occurs, and so he takes as many as two hundred different pills and supplements every day and receives others through regular intravenous infusions. While it's quite common for health and diet books to make grandiose (outsized) promises, Kurzweil and his physician co-author Terry Grossman take things to an entirely new level in their books Fantastic Voyage—Live Long Enough to Live Forever and Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever.
It's not lost on the Singularity movement's many critics that all this talk of immortality and mutated (transformative) change has deeply religious connotation (overtones). Indeed, the whole idea has been derided as a quasi-religion for the technical elite and a kind of "exultation (rapture)for the finks". Recent attention given to the Singularity by the mainstream media, including a 2011 cover story in Time, has led some observers to worry about its eventual intersection with traditional religions. Robert Geraci, a professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, wrote in an essay entitled "The Cult of Kurzweil" that if the movement achieves traction with the broader public, it "will present a serious challenge to traditional religious communities, whose own promises of salvation may appear weak in comparison". Kurzweil, for his part, vociferously denies any religious connotation and argues that his predictions are based on a solid, scientific analysis of historical data.
The whole concept might be easy to dismiss completely were it not for the fact that an entire empire (pantheon) of Silicon Valley billionaires have demonstrated a very strong interest in the Singularity. Both Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google and PayPal co-founder (and Facebook investor) Peter Thiel have associated themselves with the subject. Bill Gates has likewise lauded Kurzweil's ability to predict the future of artificial intelligence. In December 2012 Google hired Kurzweil to direct its efforts in advanced artificial intelligence research, and in 2013 Google spun off a new biotechnology venture named Calico. The new company's stated objective is to conduct research focused on curing aging and extending the human lifespan.
My own view is that something like the Singularity is certainly possible, but it is far from inevitable. The concept seems most useful when it is stripped of external (extraneous) baggage(like assumptions about immortality) and instead viewed simply as a future period of dramatic technological acceleration and disruption. It might turn out that the essential catalyst for the Singularity—the invention of super-intelligence—ultimately proves impossible or will be achieved only in the very remote future. A number of top researchers with expertise in brain science have expressed this view. Noam Chomsky, who has studied cognitive science at MIT for more than sixty years, says we're "eons away" from building human-level machine intelligence, and that the Singularity is "science fiction". Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker agrees, saying, "There is not the slightest reason to believe in a coming singularity. The fact that you can visualize a future in your imagination is not evidence that it is likely or even possible." Gordon Moore, whose name seems destined to be forever associated with exponentially advancing technology, is likewise skeptical that anything like the Singularity will ever occur.
Kurzweil's schedule (timeframe) for the arrival of human-level artificial intelligence has plenty of defenders, however. MIT physicist Max Tegmark, one of the co-authors of the Hawking article, told The Atlantic's James Hamblin that "this is very recent (near-term) stuff. Anyone who's thinking about what their kids should study in high school or college should care a lot about this." Others view a thinking machine as fundamentally possible, but much further out. Gary Marcus, for example, thinks strong AI will take at least twice as long as Kurzweil predicts, but that "it's likely that machines will be smarter than us before the end of the century—not just at chess or trivia questions but at just about everything, from mathematics and engineering to science and medicine."
In recent years, speculation about human-level AI has shifted increasingly away from a top-down programming approach and, instead, toward an emphasis on reverse engineering and then simulating the human brain. There's a great deal of disagreement about the viability of this approach, and about the level of detailed understanding that would be required before a functional simulation of the brain could be created. In general, computer scientists are more likely to be optimistic, while those with backgrounds in the biological sciences or psychology are often more skeptical. University of Minnesota biologist P. Z. Myers6 has been especially critical. In a grave (scathing) blog post written in response to Kurzweil's prediction that the brain will be successfully reverse engineered by 2020, Myers said that Kurzweil is "a lunatic (kook)" who "knows nothing about how the brain works" and has a propensity (penchant) for "making up nonsense and making ridiculous claims that have no relationship to reality."
That may be beside the point. AI optimists argue that a simulation does not need to be faithful to the biological brain in every detail. Airplanes, after all, do not flap their wings like birds. Skeptics would likely reply that we are nowhere near understanding the aerodynamics of intelligence well enough to build any wings—flapping or not. The optimists might then refute (retort) that the Wright brothers built their airplane by relying on tinkering and experimentation, and certainly not on the basis of aerodynamic theory. And so the argument goes.
(Adapted from Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford7)
Notes
① Max Tegmark
Max Erik Tegmark is a Swedish-American cosmologist. Tegmark is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the scientific director of the Foundational Questions Institute. He is also a co-founder of the Future of Life Institute, and has accepted donations from Elon Musk to investigate existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence.
② Frank Wilczek
Frank Anthony Wilczek is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician and a Nobel laureate. He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), full Professor at Stockholm University, as well as a Distinguished Origins Professor at Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.
③ Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, the American financial services industry (even if financial firms are not physically located there), or New York–based financial interests.
④ Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing is an English computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. He was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general-purpose computer. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.
⑤ Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison is an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as America's greatest inventor. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park", he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.
⑥ P. Z. Myers
Paul Zachary Myers is an American biologist who founded and writes the Pharyngula science-blog. He is associate-professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Morris (UMM) where he works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology. He is a critic of intelligent design (ID), the creationist movement, and other pseudoscientific concepts.
⑦ Martin Ford
Martin Ford is a robot revolution leading expert in the fields of artificial intelligence and robot revolution, with more than 25 years of practical experience in the field of computer design and soft ware development.
Part 3 Exercises
I. Read aloud and listen to the audio of the text for full understanding.
II. Practice subvocal reading at fast speed (250 words per minute), and then try to suppress subvocal to achieve much faster reading speed.
III. Think and respond critically.
1. What is artificial intelligence according to the passage? What's the primary argument the author holds?
2. What research did James Barrat conduct? What was the result?
3. What's the assumption about AGI that AI researchers make? What's the implication for humanity if such an intelligence explosion were to occur?
4. What's the technological singularity according to the passage? What's the prediction about Singularity by Ray Kurzweil?
5. What are the critics about Singularity? Give some examples.
IV. Decide whether the following pairs of words are synonyms, antonyms or neither. Use a dictionary for help if necessary.
1. lotion, aftershave ____________
2. outlay, outlying ____________
3. punishable, penal ____________
4. maxim, parable ____________
5. extol, criticize ____________
6. belittle, disparage ____________
7. marketplace, bazaar ____________
8. engrave, inscribe ____________
9. evoke, revoke ____________
10. disagreement, unanimity ____________
11. zeal, phlegm ____________
12. rampant, contagious ____________
13. surveillance, extol ____________
14. linger, prowl ____________
15. dreary, dinky ____________
16. encapsulate, swathe ____________
17. punitive, testimonial ____________
18. keynote, motif ____________
19. fritter, squander ____________
20. exhaustion, exhaustive ____________
V. Match the words in the box with their definitions.
authoritarian automate backlash baton handicraft
destine rupture usher hype optimism
1. ________________ a vending machine from which you can get food
2. ________________ an official stationed at the entrance of a courtroom or legislative chamber
3. _______________ blatant or sensational promotion
4. _______________ a movement back from an impact
5. _______________ a person who behaves in a tyrannical manner
6. _______________ state of being torn or burst open
7. _______________ a thin tapered rod used by a conductor to lead an orchestra or choir
8. ________________ decree or designate beforehand
9. ________________ an activity that involves making something in a skillful way by using your hands; an object made by skillful use of your hands
10. _______________ the feeling of being hopeful about the future or about the success of something in particular
VI. Fill in the gap with the word that best completes the sentence. Change the form where necessary.
augment bounty burgeon catalyst clamor
coax contagious critique daub decentralize
destabilize discern dissect infuse optimize
rampant physician transcend understate vibrant
1. By selecting the best returns, we stimulate those companies to _______________ their own risk-return balance.
2. Welsh Economic Development Minister Andrew Davies said the studios would become "a major economic _______________ for the area".
3. To the east, the new and up-and-coming neighborhoods of Mission Bay and South Beach are ________________ and walkable.
4. Packet Design's engineers plan to ________________ new software into this layer of the network in six months.
5. To maximize your savings, you should _______________ the wedding money with regular payments from your paychecks.
6. However, once athletes _________________ into diversified industry brands, their endorsement dollars are truly global in location.
7. So, it will _______________ the loss in productivity that occurs from these new arrangements.
8. He had to eat constantly to keep from passing out, so his _______________ suggested he consult an endocrinologist.
9. The mayor promised to put a stop to the ________________ corruption that plagued the city.
10. Chicken pox is a highly _______________ disease.
11. The economic reforms being introduced are designed to _______________ and introduce private enterprise only within politically controllable parameters.
12. If it is not brought under control, it could _______________ the entire region.
13. Planetary scientists could not measure its size, detect its atmosphere, see its satellites, and therefore could not _______________ its interior density.
14. Worried about the Nigerians' lack of heft, Liberians have continued to ______________ for a supplemental force of American peacekeepers.
15. The new Pope's seemingly more liberal stances on social issues and his ________________ of capitalism may make him a better bet for radical change.
16. He decides to get the _______________ raised by weaving a path of destruction across North and South America.
17. There is every indication, as unemployment climbs and cuts are made, that the sense of alienation will _______________.
18. When the girl sat glumly, the mother was instructed not to ________________ her into playing, but simply describe what she was doing.
19. Although you can _______________ up some watercolor with a tissue, you are essentially painting in the moment, and trying to get it as right as you can.
20. This Valentine's Day, we ________________ the hidden meaning behind everything from chocolates to jewelry so you know exactly what you're getting.
VII. Make a choice that best completes each of the following sentences.
1. The company auditor has filed a warning that Eurotunnel is in danger of becoming _______________.
A. insolvent
B. abreast
C. incontinent
D. handmade
2. Mr. Macron believes that unemployment is socially _______________ and is leading to the creation of an underclass.
A. lame
B. divisive
C. shoddy
D. amiss
3. It's a good idea to paint your bike with _______________ paint so that you are more visible to motorists.
A. pastoral
B. horny
C. luminous
D. lunar
4. Whether this input has made a significant impact on the pattern of activity is a _______________ point.
A. untoward
B. mortuary
C. tinsel
D. moot
5. In the newer and flatter organization where there is little opportunity for promotion, how does a(n) _______________ employee advance?
A. enterprising
B. legionnaire
C. nifty
D. muscular
6. The increase was to be ______________ to June 1 and would rise to 75 percent by the last quarter of 2017.
A. backtracked
B. mediated
C. backdated
D. predisposed
7. Upon arrival, the royal couple stood in the foyer area of the arena, pausing in silence as they were shown the exact spot where the suicide bomb was _______________.
A. detained
B. detonated
C. disarmed
D. disbanded
8. Within 24 hours of your interview, be sure to send an e-mail reiterating your interest in the job, your appreciation of the person's time, and how your skills ______________ with the company's priorities.
A. dovetail
B. dowel
C. consecrate
D. harmonize
9. The animals were ______________ with lice, suffering from diarrhea and underweight, said Susie Coston, Farm Sanctuary's National Shelter director.
A. infested
B. interspersed
C. incubated
D. anointed
10. Between 2007 and 2009, as Utah faced severe droughts and wildfires that many linked to climate change, the state legislature ______________ more regulations.
A. promulgated
B. confiscated
C. configured
D. blueprinted
VIII. Label each of the following statements F for fact, O for opinion, or B for a blend of both.
1. Most AI research and development, and nearly all venture capital, continue to be focused on specialized applications.
2. Fascination with the idea of building a true thinking machine traces its origin at least as far back as 1950.
3. The results: 42 percent believed a thinking machine would arrive by 2030, 25 percent said by 2050, and 20 percent thought it would happen by 2100.
4. The real question, I think, is not whether the field as a whole is in any real danger of another AI winter but, rather, whether progress remains limited to narrow AI or ultimately expands to Artificial General Intelligence as well.
5. Within the black hole's boundary, or event horizon, gravitational force is so intense that light itself is unable to escape its grasp.
6. Among the most important of Kurzweil's predictions is the idea that we will inevitably merge with the machines of the future.
7. In December 2012 Google hired Kurzweil to direct its efforts in advanced artificial intelligence research, and in 2013 Google spun off a new biotechnology venture named Calico.
8. My own view is that something like the Singularity is certainly possible, but it is far from inevitable.
9. One of the primary arguments I've put forth here, however, is that the specialized nature of real-world AI doesn't necessarily represent a fetter to the ultimate automation of a great many jobs.
10. In astrophysics, a singularity refers to the point within a black hole where the normal laws of physics break down.
IX. Translate the following sentences into Chinese.
1. If AI researchers do eventually manage to make the leap to AGI, there is little reason to believe that the result will be a machine that simply matches human-level intelligence.
2. The first application of the term "singularity" to a future technology-driven event is usually credited to computer pioneer John von Neumann, who reportedly said sometime in the 1950s that "ever accelerating progress... gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue."
3. Vinge viewed the technological singularity in similar terms: It represents an intermittency in human progress that would be fundamentally equivocal until it occurred. Attempting to predict the future beyond the Singularity would be like an astronomer trying to see inside a black hole.
4. Noam Chomsky, who has studied cognitive science at MIT for more than sixty years, says we're "eons away" from building human-level machine intelligence, and that the Singularity is "science fiction".
5. That may be beside the point. AI optimists argue that a simulation does not need to be faithful to the biological brain in every detail. Airplanes, after all, do not flap their wings like birds.
X. Compose a passage on how artificial intelligence changes the future of the mankind. Write at least 250 words, including your reasons and opinions.