Deutsche Telekom Interviews AI Pioneer Professor Jürgen Schmidhuber

Deutsche Telekom has published a video interview with AI researcher Professor Jürgen Schmidhuber. Schmidhuber, widely recognized as the "father of AI," was interviewed about the fascination and development of artificial intelligence.

In the discussion, Schmidhuber drew parallels between artificial intelligence and human brain function, particularly focusing on recurrent neural networks. He explained how these networks learn through trial and error, mimicking the brain's process of information handling and decision-making, akin to robots navigating their environment.

Schmidhuber noted that AI has not yet reached the intelligence level of small animals like crows or monkeys, but progress has been rapid. He highlighted that while computers surpassed humans in chess decades ago, human-like pattern recognition has proven more challenging. The first neural network to outperform humans in a specific image recognition task emerged only in 2011.

The interview also touched upon the role of current technologies, such as smartphones, in AI advancement. Schmidhuber's team's development of LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) technology is now integral to voice recognition in products from companies like Google and Amazon. However, he stressed that this remains a stepping stone towards more sophisticated AI.

He addressed common concerns about AI development, such as the fear of robots surpassing humans in speed and efficiency. Schmidhuber pointed out that AI also has its own requirements, like energy supply, and that many human aspects, including emotional intelligence, are already part of current AI research.