雅思阅读常见话题解析：关于科技感

说到科技感，人工智能(Artificial Intelligence)一定是个避不开的词。人工智能是研究、开发用于模拟、延伸和扩展人的智能的理论、方法、技术及应用系统的一门新的技术科学。

人工智能的传说可以追溯到古埃及，但随着1941年以来电子计算机的发展，技术已最终可以创造出机器智能，本文将结合两篇剑桥真题来讲讲雅思阅读中的人工智能。

C5T3P3 The Return of Artificial Intelligence《人工智能的回归》

这一篇中介绍到“人工智能”一词最初是在1956年DARTMOUTH学会上提出的。

The field(领域)was launched, and the term(n.术语) ‘artificial intelligence’ coined, at a conference in 1956, by a group of researchers that included Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, Herbert Simon and Alan Newell, all of whom went on to become leading figures(领军人物) in the field.

自此之后，研究人员开始尝试用不同方法去解决问题，包括语音识别、下棋等。

That said, different groups of researchers attacked different problems, from speech recognition(语音识别)to chess playing, in different ways; AI unified the field in name only.

这篇文章还探讨了人们对人工智能态度的变化。早期公众对人工智能抱着很高的期望，该领域的研究人员一直暗示成功近在咫尺。

Most researchers agree that AI peaked(达到高峰)around 1985. A public reared on science-fiction movies and excited by the growing power of computers had high expectations. For years, AI researchers had implied that a breakthrough was just around the corner.

当人们发现计算机和家庭机器人都没能问世，便对人工智能逐渐失去信心。

It proved to be a false dawn. Thinking computers and household robots failed to materialise, and a backlash(强烈抵制) ensued. ‘There was undue(过度的) optimism in the early 1980s,’ says David Leake, a researcher at Indiana University.

随着《人工智能》这部关于机器男孩的电影的上映，这个词又重新回到公众的意识之中。人们渐渐地不再将人工智能看作是好高骛远、无所建数的研究的代名词，而是客观地看待它。

After years in the wilderness, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) seems poised to make a comeback. AI was big in the 1980s but vanished(消失) in the 1990s. It re-entered public consciousness with the release of AI, a movie about a robot boy.

C16T4P3 Attitudes towards

Artificial Intelligence

虽然也同样探讨公众对人工智能的态度，却是从“信任”这个维度去探讨的。

文章一开篇就介绍到人工智能已经在公安执法、医学领域都已经取得了不错的成就。

Artificial intelligence (AI) can already predict the future. Police forces are using it to map when and where crime is likely to occur. Doctors can use it to predict when a patient is most likely to have a heart attack or stroke.

随后作者笔锋一转，提出公众并信任人工智能，并介绍了不信任的原因。人工智能对于大多数人来说仍然属于崭新、陌生的事物，人们对无法理解的东西容易产生焦虑和失控感。

AI, on the other hand, is still fairly new and unfamiliar to most people. Even if it can be technically explained (and that’s not always the case), Al’s decision-making process is usually too difficult for most people to comprehend. And interacting with something we don’t understand can cause anxiety and give us a sense that we’re losing control.

因此，人们对人工智能的态度两级分化。乐观主义者对人工智能的热情变得更加极端，而怀疑论者则变得更加谨慎。

Optimists became more extreme in their enthusiasm for AI and sceptics(怀疑论者) became even more guarded.

最后，作者提到提升对人工智能的信任的方法，比如披露人工智能所使用的算法和目的。除此之外，让人们对人工智能的决策制定拥有一定的控制也能够提升信任。

Simply having previous experience with AI can significantly improve people’s opinions about the technology, as was found in the study mentioned above. Another solution may be to reveal more about the algorithms(算法) which AI uses and the purposes they serve. Research suggests that allowing people some control over AI decision-making could also improve trust and enable AI to learn from human experience.

2017年12月，人工智能入选“2017年度中国媒体十大流行语”。2021年9月25日，为促进人工智能健康发展，《新一代人工智能伦理规范》发布。笔者在看到这份《规范》时，想到了C15T1P2 driverless cars《无人驾驶》这篇真题里提及的无人驾驶汽车面临的一个挑战：无人驾驶车出事故怎么认定责任。随着人工智能的发展，伦理规范将为人工智能的进一步加速发展奠定了重要基础。