Keynote at the 33. Bremer Universitäts-Gespräche Data Science - Wunderwelt oder alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen (engl. Data science - Wonderworld or old wine in new bottles), October 7th, 2021, Universität Bremen, Germany.

1. Artificial Intelligence:
The Promise, the Myth,
and a Dose of Reality
Künstliche Intelligenz:
Das Versprechen, der Mythos und eine Prise Realität
33. Bremer Universitäts-Gespräche October 7th, 2021
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett
Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin)

2. How to cite this keynote
Monett, D. (2021). Artificial Intelligence: The Promise, the Myth, and a Dose
of Reality. Keynote at the 33. Bremer Universitäts-Gespräche Data
Science - Wunderwelt oder alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen (engl. Data
science - Wonderworld or old wine in new bottles), October 7th, 2021,
Universität Bremen, Germany [online]. Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/dmonett/monett-2021-unibremen
(Accessed: access date).
2
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

3. What is (A)I?
Intelligence, an elusive concept…
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
A widely accepted definition of intelligence
Most accepted definition, AGISI survey
Gottfredson, L. S. (1997a). Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52
signatories, history, and bibliography. Intelligence, 24: 13-23.
As cited in Haier, R. J. (2017). The Neuroscience of Intelligence. New York: Cambridge
University Press.

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
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Minsky, M. (1985)
The Society of Mind. Simon and Schuster,
New York.
“[Intelligence is] the ability to
solve hard problems.”
“[I]t isn't wise to treat an old,
vague word like ‘intelligence’ as
though it must define any
definite thing. Instead of trying
to say what such a word
‘means,’ it is better simply to try
to explain how we use it.”
“[...] stimulated by the
invention of modern
computers. This inspired a
flood of new ideas about
how machines could do
what only minds had done
previously.”
Research in AI started in the 1950s

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
Definitions of AI
“Artificial Intelligence is ... the
study of the computations
that make it possible to
perceive, reason, and act.”
Winston, P. H. (1992)
Artificial Intelligence. Third Edition,
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
“The essence of intelligence is the
principle of adapting to the
environment while working with
insufficient knowledge and resources.”
“Intelligence measures an agent’s
ability to achieve goals in a wide
range of environments.”
Wang, P. (2008)
What do you mean by “AI”? In Proceedings of the First AGI Conference,
Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, 171: 362–373, IOS Press.
Legg, S. and Hutter, M. (2007)
Universal Intelligence: A Definition of Machine Intelligence.
Minds and Machines, 17(4):391-444, Springer.
… among other 500+

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
AGISI survey
14
Educational Psychology
USA, Europe
Prediction of behavior
14
Only definitions of
human intelligence
25
Diverse Psychologies
(educational, cognitive,
behavioural, social, cross-
cultural, etc.)
USA, Europe
Understanding of
behavior
25
Mostly definitions of
human intelligence
567 (academia: 79.7%)
Computer Science,
Engineering, Biology,
Neurosciences,
Philosophy,
Cognitive Science, etc.
57+ countries
Computation of behavior
343 (+ 4128 opinions)
Explicit distinction human
vs. machine intelligence
Participants
Primary
affiliation
Countries
Focus
Definitions
Type of
definitions
Symposium Symposium
1921 1986 2019
Defining (A)I: A comparison
@dmonett

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
No consensus
“There is very great disagreement concerning the concept of
intelligence” (Journal editors 1921).
“[A] substantial disagreement on a single definition still abounds”
(Detterman 1986).
“It is a testimony to the immaturity of our field that the question of
what we mean when we talk about intelligence still doesn’t have a
satisfying answer” (Chollet 2019)
Journal editors (1921). Intelligence and Its Measurement: A Symposium. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 12(3),
123-147.
Detterman, D. K. (1986). Qualitative Integration: The Last Word? In R. J. Sternberg and D. K. Detterman (eds.), What is
intelligence? Contemporary Viewpoints on its Nature and Definition, pp. 163-166. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Chollet, F. (2019). The Measure of Intelligence. arXiv:1911.01547 [cs.AI].

9. 9
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
No consensus
▸ No consensus definition(s) of (A)I
▸ Very polarized concept
▸ Interdisciplinarity, different contexts
and applications
▸ Misleading news and hype around AI
damaging the field
▸ Need to know the boundaries of the
discourse?
“The lack of specificity allows journalists, entrepreneurs, and marketing departments to say
virtually anything they want.” (Lipton, 2018)
“[T]he public knowledge and understanding on AI [...] is suffering from a lack of
transparency as to capabilities and thus impacts of AI.” (Nemitz, 2018)
“[A] lack of clarity in terms of definitions and objectives seems to have plagued the [AI] field
right back to its origins in the 1950s. This makes tracing [its] evolution . . . a difficult task.” (AI
in the UK, 2018, p. 156)
http://approximatelycorrect.com/2018/06/05/ai-ml-ai-swirling-nomenclature-slurried-thought/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0089
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldai/100/100.pdf

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
AGISI survey Defining (machine) Intelligence
24.7.2017—25.7.2019 57+ 184+
Academia (N=452, 79.7%) Industry
(N=116, 20.5%)
Researchers (N=435, 76.7%)
Educators (N=197, 34.7%)
Developers, Engineers (N=90, 15.9%)
567responses
4,128
opinions
343 new,
suggested
definitions
9x2 definitions of (human/machine)
intelligence to agree upon
*Results as per closing the survey*

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
Example of findings: Cognitive biases
undermine consensus
“Intelligence is concerned mainly with rational action. Ideally, an
intelligent agent takes the best possible action in a situation.”
“Intelligence is concerned mainly with rational action. Ideally, an
intelligent agent takes the best possible action in a situation.”
“Intelligence is concerned mainly with rational action. Ideally, an
intelligent agent takes the best possible action in a situation.”
(Russell & Norvig, 2010)
Monett, D., Hoge, L., & Lewis, C. W. P. (2019). Cognitive Biases Undermine Consensus on Definitions of Intelligence and
Limit Understanding. In U. Furbach, S. Hölldobler, M. Ragni, R. Rzepka, C. Schon, J. Vallverdu, & A. Wlodarczyk (eds.),
Joint Proceedings of the Workshops LaCATODA 2019 & BtG 2019 at IJCAI 2019, 2452: 52-59, CEUR-WS, Macao, China.

12. The AI Promise
The grand dream, the bright future
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
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13. “
The long-term dream of AI is to
build machines that have the full
range of capabilities for
intelligent actions that people
have—to build machines that are
self-aware, conscious and
autonomous in the same way that
people like you and me are.
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Wooldridge, M. (2020). The Road to Conscious Machines: The Story of AI. UK: Pelican Random House.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

14. AI and
other (sub-)
disciplines
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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
Image:
https://www.ibm.com/blogs/busi
ness-analytics/why-finance-
professionals-need-artificial-
intelligence/

15. “
The promise of artificial intelligence in
medicine is to provide composite,
panoramic views of individuals’
medical data; to improve decision
making; to avoid errors such as
misdiagnosis and unnecessary
procedures; to help in the ordering and
interpretation of appropriate tests;
and to recommend treatment.
15
Topol, E. (2019). Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again. New York: Basic Books.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
AI in medicine.
An enormous potential!
Clinical decision support
systems
(medical expert systems)
Medical diagnosis, real-time
analytics
(prediction, classification,
patient monitoring)
Data processing
(patient records,
medical literature)
Pattern recognition
(e.g. image analysis)
Virtual medical assistants
(remote diagnosis, virtual
counselors)
Life science research
(genome editing, cancer
treatment, drug discovery)
Image by https://pixabay.com/photos/dna-genetic-material-helix-proteins-3598439/

17. “
Machine medicine need not to be
our future [but] … It’s our chance,
perhaps the ultimate one, to
bring back real medicine:
Presence. Empathy. Trust.
Caring. Being Human [with the
help of machines].
17
Topol, E. (2019). Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again. New York: Basic Books.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

18. “
The promise of AI in education
Together with sensors and learning management systems, Artificial
Intelligence (AI) can give teachers a real sense of how different
students learn differently, where students get interested and where
they get bored, where they advance and where they get stuck.
Technology can help adapt learning to different student needs and
give learners greater ownership over what they learn, how they
learn, where they learn and when they learn. [...] And of course, AI is
helping assessment and exams make big leaps, whether these are
assessments through simulations, hands-on assessments in
vocational settings, or machine-learning algorithms scoring essays.
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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
Andreas Schleicher
Director, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, commenting the OECD Digital Education Outlook 2021
https://oecdedutoday.com/how-radically-reimagine-teaching-learning-digital-technology/

19. An AI momentum. Why now?
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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

20. The AI Myth
The path to human-level AI
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

21. “
The myth is not that true AI is
possible. As to that, the future of AI
is a scientific unknown. The myth of
artificial intelligence is that its
arrival is inevitable, and only a
matter of time–that we have already
embarked on the path that will lead
to human-level AI, and then
superintelligence. We have not.
21
Larson, E. J. (2021). The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why computers can’t think the way we do. Cambridge, MA: Berlknap,
Harvard University Press.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

22. Misleading news
22
AI
hype
22
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

23. “
Artifictional
intelligence, the one
“available through
the newspapers,
books and films.”
23
Collins, H. (2018). Artifictional Intelligence: Against Humanity’s Surrender to Computers. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

24. “
If you rely on movies and science
fiction (and even some popular non-
fiction) for your view of AI, you will be
afraid of AI becoming conscious,
turning malevolent, and trying to
enslave or kill us all. But given how far
the field seems from achieving
anything like general intelligence, this
is not what most people in the AI
community worry about.”
24
Mitchell, M. (2019). Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans. UK: Pelican Random House.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

25. A Dose of Reality
When you see behind the curtains …
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

26. “
The reality of AI for
the foreseeable
future is very
different to the
grand dream.
26
Wooldridge, M. (2020). The Road to Conscious Machines: The Story of AI. UK: Pelican Random House.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

27. 27
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
Courtesy of
@VaroonMathur,
Tech fellow
@AINowInstitute
Pushback
Against
Harmful
AI

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
Turbulent times for AI

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/04/15/metro/cheating-allegations-chill-students-dartmouth-medical-
school/
Administration, faculty! Typical case of anthropomorphism,
a window to lack of accountability

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/dartmouth-ends-misguided-investigation-
after-students-rights-groups-speak-out
A couple of months later...

31. AI in education: Limitations
▸ Highly intrusive surveillance machinery; Corporations’ interests-driven
▸ Lack of AI literacy; educational institutions buy everything they are told
▸ Psychology, Sociology, Education experts not involved
▸ Identifies “suspicious” behaviours; “detects” fraud ⇒ Inaccurate; no extensive
research comparing to human experience
▸ Privacy (data use and sharing without students or parents’ consent)
▸ No opt-out; no alternative examination mechanisms
▸ Zero transparency; blurry or no accountability; no explainability
▸ Discrimination (e.g. students with special conditions), etc.
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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

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https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2020/1/27/21080253/ai-cancer-
diagnosis-dangers-mammography-google-paper-accuracy
Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/health-pink-ribbon-pink-ribbon-3713192/
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

33. AI in medicine: Limitations
▸ Small data; no labeled data; data not digitalized ⇒ difficult for AI
▸ Medical experts not enough involved
▸ Data security (hacking: data leaks, bad data corrupting the system)
▸ Bias (e.g. underrepresented or totally missing patients’ data)
▸ Privacy (data use and sharing without patients’ consent)
▸ Discrimination (e.g. insurance depending on risk)
▸ Transparency, explainability (black box)
33
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

34. “
No computer will be fluent in a
natural language, pass a severe
Turing Test and have full human-like
intelligence unless it is fully
embedded in normal human society.
No computer will be fully embedded
in human society as a result of
incremental progress based on
current techniques
34
Collins, H. (2018). Artifictional Intelligence: Against Humanity’s Surrender to Computers. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

35. “
Neither deep learning nor
other forms of second-
wave AI, nor any
proposals yet advanced
for third-wave, will lead to
genuine intelligence.
35
Smith, B. C. (2019). The Promise of Artificial Intelligence: Reckoning and Judgment. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

36. “
Success on narrow applications get
us not one step closer to general
intelligence. The inferences that
systems require for general
intelligence […] cannot be
programmed, learned, or
engineered with our current
knowledge of AI. […] No algorithm
exists for general intelligence.
36
Larson, E. J. (2021). The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why computers can’t think the way we do. Cambridge, MA: Berlknap,
Harvard University Press.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

37. Coming forward
There is a lot that needs to be done!
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

38. Inference
38
Deductive
reasoning
Inductive
reasoning
Abductive reasoning
(no AI theory available)
“Deduction proves that something must be;
Induction shows that something actually is operative;
Abduction merely suggests that something may be.”
Peirce, C. S. (1934). Collected papers, 5.171. Vol. V. Pragmatism and Pragmaticism.
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

39. Responsible AI, Regulating AI
39
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

40. Open research:
Standards of
genuine intelligence
▸ Distinguish appearance from
reality
▸ Commitment, taking care
about the difference
▸ Embracing actuality,
possibility, impossibility
▸ Self-awareness, among others
40
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett
Smith, B. C. (2019). The Promise of Artificial Intelligence: Reckoning and Judgment. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

41. AI literacy.
Start early.
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https://ki-campus.org/courses/daethik2020
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

45. Examples of AI-
related projects
with students
45
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

46. Robotics
46

47. 25th Anniversary, 2018
Dual Studies
47

48. Dual Studies’
Day, 2019
48

49. Girls’ Day
2019
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50. AI has
a bright future
But it depends on us.
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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
@dmonett

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Thank you!
Which are your questions?
Contact:
▸ http://monettdiaz.com
▸ dagmar.monett-diaz@hwr-berlin.de
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Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett, HWR Berlin
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