💬 AI Won't Truly Understand Language Unless It Can Experience Emotions
AI writes texts and answers questions similarly to, if not superior, humans. Some experts, such as Nobel Prize-winning physicist and "godfather of AI" Geoffrey Hinton, believe AI can understand language well. But Veena Dwivedi, director of Brock University's Neuroscience Center, disagrees, as do many neuroscientists.
She emphasizes that simply writing text does not imply understanding it. Chatbots work with text, but writing is only one aspect of language, not the entire thing.
In speech, we use a variety of signals, including intonation, tone, facial gestures, and implicit context. Consider how differently the phrase "I'm pregnant" is interpreted when said by a scared teenage girl, a joyful woman undergoing IVF, or a surprised 70-year-old grandmother. That type of context is inaccessible to AI without additional input.
Even infants pick up on emotional context: for example, 17-month-old babies are more likely to complete tasks if praised. Our brains are wired from birth for multidimensional language perception, which AI (at least for now) lacks.
What do you think? Does AI really understand us?
❤️ — yes, sometimes better than humans
🔥 — no, it simply guesses words
🤔 — it doesn't matter; it's all about the results
