'Artificial intelligence' - Standford - Experience important to my development

I am doing the Stanford supplement and I am getting kinda paranoid about it. If I have to rewrite this short essay I will but I need some feedback to do it. Any commentary is deeply appreciated.

Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the idea that has captivated my imagination. A being made by humans who can learn, understand and be self-conscious about his existence goes beyond anything created by humanity so far. It will represent new era for humanity in many different areas of knowledge. Psychology, computer science, ethics, robotics and sociology would be some of the affected by such advance. But this only leads to the question of how we could create such being.

People have been studying intelligence for a long time and only recently we have dedicated some effort to trying to recreate intelligence. We have created some good algorithms for learning from genetic programming to neural networks. What intrigues me the most is if we will use one of those algorithms, whether alone or in a hybrid form, to create a sentient being or if a new way to treat intelligence and try to model it must be created.

Knowledge at this point is equivalent to the time before the first powered human flight. But to reach that precise moment humans must first understand the aerodynamics of intelligence. This isn't an easy task at all. But because of that the reward will be much more exciting. In the end this road could lead humanity to a completely new science. Still, this new developments are going to be debated for all which they imply.

From an ethics standpoint what should be done when we create the first artificial intelligence. Whether or not he should be treated as a living being or if he should have rights will be open to debate. The definition of life itself would change and new grounds for ethics would be created ready to be explored. In the end this only shows how far as specie we have arrived that we want to create intelligence.

Just a final question. I want some feedback on the other short essays for the supplement. Should I create another thread or should I post them here. I am new to this site.

All essays for colleges, including Stanford, need a personal element. This doesn't say anything personal about you or describe who you are. They know what Artificial Intelligence is and what it arises. You need to go the extra mile and SHOW how you USE this idea/experience, how it has shaped your intellectual development, and how you are intellectually EXCITED to incorporate this idea/experience in the future (at their college).

I will agree demitrin. You are mentioning some really interesting stuff about artificial intelligence but you are not relating that to you. Every question has a what and why part. You are answering only the what part, but the why part is usually the most important.

It seems I didnt understand the instructions completely. I rewrote the whole thing to reflect the what and why better. What do you think about this new short essay? and again I want some feedback on the other short essays for the supplement. Should I create another thread or should I post them here?

Artificial intelligence
The first time I heard about artificial intelligence happened when I read about the game StarCraft. When I understood that a computer could play against a person my imagination exploded. My thoughts were somewhere along the lines "If computers can play games and beat humans then it's possible to create a being who can learn, understand and be self-conscious". I wanted to learn more about this amazing topic and understand it better. By that time I finally defeated the AI of StarCraft when playing one on one. I understood that even AI has its limits and trying to break them became a dream.

Among the first details that I understood about creating intelligence was how to define intelligence. It wasn't simple at all. Even the smallest action that I would do on a normal basis made me think about how it's done. Walking, even keeping my balance is natural, but telling a computer how to keep its balance seemed almost impossible. But in this challenge my interest grew even more.

As time passed I read more about how actually AI is done. My expectations were around the idea of the aerodynamics on intelligence. I was being too harsh given that this area of knowledge was relatively new. Then in turn I understood that most AI in games were computers solving problems with an algorithm. They created the illusion of someone playing when in reality the computer only followed instructions trying to achieve a goal.

What started from simple curiosity to understand how the computer won against me turned into a desire to understand AI much better. I look at everything with different eyes wondering how a computer could do it. I am also interested in applying this knowledge to games to make even better opponents that learn from the player. AI changed my outlook in life and my desire to create it.