Final Exam: The Power of Words

Words. Words are extremely powerful things and very easy to underestimate. It’s easy not to think about the language we use and the words we say everyday, but it is very important that we do. Everyone has heard the phrase, “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” However, I’m not so sure I agree with this statement. Words can have a massive impact on people. With text messaging, it is very easy to misread what a person is saying, as the words are all people have to go by. Now, with social media as such a large way to get the news, it is the words of a headline that draw people in. While the pictures and font can attract people, the words of both the headline and the content are ultimately what cause judgment. Just a few words can easily ruin or build a person’s reputation in a millisecond.

Words play a gigantic role in peoples’ lives. In The Most Human Human, Brian Christian says, “55 percent of what you convey when you speak comes from your body language, 38 percent from your tone of voice, and a paltry 7 percent from the words you choose.” However, Christian emphasizes that this mere 7 percent can have the largest impact on a person’s life. He says that, in legal matters, the words a person says are what ultimately can get them in trouble, not how they say it. Christian emphasizes that, in the Turning Test, the words themselves are what is important. However, he makes it clear that “indirect and theatrical questions, frowned upon in courtrooms, are the best types of questions to ask in order to distinguish between computers and humans.”

I think Christian displays a key difference between computers and humans, in that, while computers may be programmed to answer questions as humans would, there are some questions that they can never actually answer. Christian speaks about follow up questions in his book. For example, you can ask a computer, “Do you like candy?” and the computer can easily answer "yes" or "no." However, following up with the question “why?” will confuse the computer, as it does not know what you are referring to. Christian emphasizes that this is key to beating the Turning Test when it comes to language. I think the differences between computers and humans in understanding language proves that, while computers can easily mimic the thought patterns, memory, and even voices of humans, they lack specifically human abilities. They have trouble assuming things and making connections to recent past conversation and events. I am not saying it is impossible for computers to do these things, but it is much more difficult. For humans, it is almost automatic. Humans would automatically, without a second guess, assume that the question, “why?”, referred to the previous question about candy asked not a second before. Computers, on the other hand, may have much more difficulty. In my opinion, this key difference greatly increases the intelligence level of humans as compared to computers. While computers may easily contain the ability to process and memorize much more information than humans and, on surface level, know much more than some humans, humans far surpass computers simply by containing specifically human characteristics.

However, we, also, should not underestimate the power and influence of simple words. In the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, all the information the computer, HAL, knows is given to him through words, and he ends up knowing more about the mission than the humans. Computers, while lacking the same abilities and thought patterns as humans, can still surpass them in intelligence through their knowledge of facts and words. HAL ends up finding out about the crew’s plan to disconnect him by lip-reading what they say to each other. HAL uses words to convey everything, including what he is feeling. At the end of the movie, when the crew attempts to disconnect him, he says, “I am afraid.” In a scary situation, humans would most likely not have to literally say they are afraid. Instead, they may scream, yell single words, such as “STOP!” or “NO!”, or even look ahead with fear stricken eyes. However, they most likely would not state what they are thinking. In the movie, HAL gets all the information he contains from words he observes or is programmed to know. Humans can gain information in a variety of ways- actions, emotions, and experiences.

In The Most Human Human, during the Turning Test, humans are confined to the use of words to prove their humanity, as that is all computers have to go by, which I think majorly sets humans apart from computers. While robots can be programmed with movement, they still process information through words. Humans, on the other hand, can process it in a number of ways. However, as mentioned before, words can have a large impact. In looking at only humanity, it is the words a person says that can get them sent to jail, not necessarily the emotions or reactions they display.

So, does the fact that humans contain different abilities and ways to process information than computers truly give them an advantage over computers? After all, HAL knew far more than the humans did, and he relied purely on words. However, I still think these purely human abilities give humans an advantage, simply because they have the ability to use their assumptions, emotions, experiences, etc., and computers do not. In the Turning Test, the humans have to rely on these things to beat computers when it comes to language. While they could fight words with words, they fight words with assumptions, which are much harder for computers to make.

The danger of AI technology’s lack of real human characteristics is displayed in the 1983 film, War Games. In the movie, the computer system, WOPR cannot tell the difference between human reality and fiction, and ends up taking every cyber attack, as an actual attack from the Soviet Union. This causes NORAD to retaliate and almost start a World War III. While humans can easily tell the difference from reality and fiction, computers are only as intelligent as what they are programmed to do and from what they learn from words.

Do not get me wrong; computers can far surpass humans in the information they know. Like Christian emphasizes, words themselves are powerful, powerful things. However, I think simply containing natural human abilities, such as assuming, containing past experiences, having emotion, and even using nicknames and abbreviations can give humans an advantage. Computers can mimic anything. However, really containing these things; really experiencing emotions is something computers do not get the advantage of doing. In the Turning Test, Christian explains that humans really have to look for these things to distinguish humanity from technology. Computers are smart. They can be far smarter than humans. But, simply asking a follow up question of “why?” or using the pronoun “it” can drive them insane. Something so simply to us can confuse a machine.

AI technology will continue to evolve and will continue to mimic more and more human abilities. However, we should never underestimate humanity. So lets always remember the power of words, especially the word “why?”