Ben Goertzel
Encyclopedia
Ben Goertzel is an American
author and researcher in the field of artificial intelligence
. He currently leads Novamente LLC, a privately held software company that attempts to develop a form of strong AI
, which he calls "Artificial General Intelligence". He is also the CEO of Biomind LLC, a company that markets a software product for the AI-supported analysis of biological microarray
data; and he is an advisor to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and formerly its Director of Research.
Goertzel is the son of Ted Goertzel, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University
. He left high school after the tenth grade to attend Bard College at Simon's Rock, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Goertzel went on to obtain a Ph.D.
in mathematics from Temple University
in 1989, then taught mathematics, computer science and psychology at various universities, including the University of Nevada
, City University of New York
, the University of Waikato
, and the University of Western Australia
.
From 1997 until 2001 he headed Webmind Inc. (also known as Intelligenesis Corp.), a company that he had founded and that attempted to use artificial intelligence for the analysis of financial markets. This work was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times
, explaining the approach as machine learning
combined with natural language processing
applied to textual information gathered from the internet, in order to predict business risk or to aid in making buying decisions.
He explained his approach to creating Artificial General Intelligence in a Google
Tech talk in May 2007. He defines intelligence as the ability to detect patterns in the world and in the agent itself. He tries to create a "baby-like" artificial intelligence first, and then raise and train this agent in a simulated or virtual world such as Second Life
to produce a more powerful intelligence. Knowledge is represented in a network whose nodes and links carry probabilistic truth values as well as "attention values", with the attention values resembling the weights in a neural network
. Several algorithms operate on this network, the central one being a combination of a probabilistic inference engine
and a custom version of evolutionary programming
. He claims that this combination is able to avoid the combinatorial explosions that both these algorithms suffer from when exposed to large problems.
In an August 2008 audio interview, Goertzel stated that he is a founding member of the transhumanist
Order of Cosmic Engineers and that he has signed up with Alcor
to have his body frozen after his death, and that he expects to live essentially indefinitely barring some catastrophic accident. He also promoted the OpenCog
project which aims to build an open source
general artificial intelligence engine.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author and researcher in the field of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
. He currently leads Novamente LLC, a privately held software company that attempts to develop a form of strong AI
Strong AI
Strong AI is artificial intelligence that matches or exceeds human intelligence — the intelligence of a machine that can successfully perform any intellectual task that a human being can. It is a primary goal of artificial intelligence research and an important topic for science fiction writers and...
, which he calls "Artificial General Intelligence". He is also the CEO of Biomind LLC, a company that markets a software product for the AI-supported analysis of biological microarray
Microarray
A microarray is a multiplex lab-on-a-chip. It is a 2D array on a solid substrate that assays large amounts of biological material using high-throughput screening methods.Types of microarrays include:...
data; and he is an advisor to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and formerly its Director of Research.
Goertzel is the son of Ted Goertzel, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
. He left high school after the tenth grade to attend Bard College at Simon's Rock, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Goertzel went on to obtain a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in mathematics from Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
in 1989, then taught mathematics, computer science and psychology at various universities, including the University of Nevada
University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno , is a teaching and research university established in 1874 and located in Reno, Nevada, USA...
, City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
, the University of Waikato
University of Waikato
The University of Waikato is located in Hamilton and Tauranga, New Zealand, and was established in 1964. It has strengths across a broad range of subject areas, particularly its degrees in Computer Science and in Management...
, and the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
.
From 1997 until 2001 he headed Webmind Inc. (also known as Intelligenesis Corp.), a company that he had founded and that attempted to use artificial intelligence for the analysis of financial markets. This work was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, explaining the approach as machine learning
Machine learning
Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as from sensor data or databases...
combined with natural language processing
Natural language processing
Natural language processing is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages; it began as a branch of artificial intelligence....
applied to textual information gathered from the internet, in order to predict business risk or to aid in making buying decisions.
He explained his approach to creating Artificial General Intelligence in a Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Tech talk in May 2007. He defines intelligence as the ability to detect patterns in the world and in the agent itself. He tries to create a "baby-like" artificial intelligence first, and then raise and train this agent in a simulated or virtual world such as Second Life
Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
to produce a more powerful intelligence. Knowledge is represented in a network whose nodes and links carry probabilistic truth values as well as "attention values", with the attention values resembling the weights in a neural network
Neural network
The term neural network was traditionally used to refer to a network or circuit of biological neurons. The modern usage of the term often refers to artificial neural networks, which are composed of artificial neurons or nodes...
. Several algorithms operate on this network, the central one being a combination of a probabilistic inference engine
Inference engine
In computer science, and specifically the branches of knowledge engineering and artificial intelligence, an inference engine is a computer program that tries to derive answers from a knowledge base. It is the "brain" that expert systems use to reason about the information in the knowledge base for...
and a custom version of evolutionary programming
Evolutionary programming
Evolutionary programming is one of the four major evolutionary algorithm paradigms. It is similar to genetic programming, but the structure of the program to be optimized is fixed, while its numerical parameters are allowed to evolve....
. He claims that this combination is able to avoid the combinatorial explosions that both these algorithms suffer from when exposed to large problems.
In an August 2008 audio interview, Goertzel stated that he is a founding member of the transhumanist
Transhumanism
Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
Order of Cosmic Engineers and that he has signed up with Alcor
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is a Scottsdale, Arizona, USA-based nonprofit company that researches, advocates for and performs cryonics, the preservation of humans in liquid nitrogen after legal death, with hopes of restoring them to full health when new...
to have his body frozen after his death, and that he expects to live essentially indefinitely barring some catastrophic accident. He also promoted the OpenCog
OpenCog
OpenCog is a project that aims to build an open source artificial general intelligence framework. OpenCog Prime is a specific set of interacting components designed to give rise to human-equivalent artificial general intelligence...
project which aims to build an open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
general artificial intelligence engine.
Publications
Goertzel has written numerous research papers and journalistic articles. His books include:- The Structure of Intelligence: A New Mathematical Model of Mind (Springer, 1993)
- The Evolving Mind (Gordon and Breach, 1993)
- Chaotic Logic: Language, Thought and Reality From the Perspective of Complex Systems Science (Plenum Press, 1994)
- Linus PaulingLinus PaulingLinus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century...
: A Life in Science and Politics (Basic Books, 1995). Written with his father Ted Goertzel. Ted in turn is son of Victor and Mildred Goertzel and Ted credits his parents also as co-authors of the Pauling biography. - From Complexity to Creativity (Plenum Press, 1997)
- Creating Internet Intelligence (Plenum Press, 2001).
- Mind in Time (Hampden Press, 2003) co-edited by Allan Combs and Mark Germine.
- Artificial General Intelligence: Cognitive Technologies (Springer, 2005), co-edited with Cassio Pennachin, describes the mathematics underpinning the Novamente AI Engine.
- The Hidden Pattern: A Patternist Philosophy of Mind (Brown Walker Press, 2006)
- The Path to Posthumanity (Academica, 2006) co-authored with Stephan Vladimir Bugaj
- Advances in Artificial General Intelligence (IOS Press, 2007) co-edited with Pei Wang
External links
- Ben Goertzel's web site and blog
- Ben Goertzel's Machines Like Us interview
- Artificial Intelligence and Human Immortality, video of Ben Goertzel presentation at the Immortality Institute conference, 17 May 2006
- Google Tech Talk by Ben Goertzel, 30 May 2007
- Interview of Ben Goertzel, by the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
- Nine Years to a Positive Singularity – If We Really, Really Try. Speech given by Ben Goertzel at the Singularity SummitSingularity SummitThe Singularity Summit is the annual conference of the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. It was started in 2006 at Stanford University by Ray Kurzweil, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Peter Thiel, and the subsequent summits in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 have been held in San...
in September 2007 - Using Virtual Agents and Physical Robots for AGI Research. A Talk given by Ben Goertzel at The Third Conference on Artificial General Intelligence in March 2010 in Lugano Switzerland
- A General Intelligence Oriented Architecture for Embodied Natural Language Processing. A Talk given by Ben Goertzel at The Third Conference on Artificial General Intelligence in March 2010 in Lugano Switzerland
- Video interview with Ben Goertzel. Ben was interviewed during May 2011 about AGI, open cog and new book 'Building Better Minds'