Why AI may never match the human brain!

We are in the middle of 'Brain Awareness week', a period from 10th to 16th March dedicated to increase public awareness about the brain and to celebrate the wonders of the mind and brain.

So, we look at one of the greatest books ever written, 'A brief history of intelligence' by Max Bennet. He talks about LUCA- the last universal common ancestor and how we evolved from a soup of molecules back then, to the present day.

The book talks about five breakthroughs over time, that changed our brain forever. These are our #Bookstrapping insights.

Breakthrough 1 - Learning was not the core function of the first ever brain that appeared roughly 600 mn years ago in a multicellular body. The brain was meant to help the body steer towards good and away from bad. This established the basis of movement and associative learning.

Breakthrough 2 - This was the learning by doing phase in which we learnt through trial and error. Attributes like curiosity and pattern recognition appeared. The brain also grasped the concept of three dimensional space, enabling us to recognise where we were and remember the locations of things.

Breakthrough 3 - This is the phase where the brain learnt by imagining, thanks to the neocortex. Episodic memory emerged - which meant the ability to recall past events and use these to adjust behaviour. The motor cortex also evolved, allowing vertebrates to plan movement better.

Breakthrough 4 - The social brain emerged. Now we were able to infer the intent and knowledge of others and acquire skills through observation. We also learnt to take an action now to satisfy a 'want' in the future!

Breakthrough 5 - Not only did we move from foraging fruit to eating meat, we also learnt to SPEAK! Thanks to the gift of language, ideas could now be perpetuated down generations! The brain became bigger and cooking emerged to give the brain the energy to grow larger!

We have now taken these breakthroughs further by reading and writing, resulting in unprecedented progress! Our brains are so evolved now that we may create our own likeness! But this is easier said than done, considering that the present brain has been billions of years in the making! Can AI have its big moment without appreciating the last billion years of achingly slow progress?

Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta