Science fiction like Star Wars has shown us humanoid robots like C-3PO and R2-D2, where several AIs are linked together and put in the body of a robot, to match or even exceed human intelligence.

Tony Prescott, professor of Cognitive Robotics, has been studying neuroscience and artificial intelligence. His new book, The Psychology of Artificial Intelligence, published by Routledge, argues that combining multiple AIs to form a larger intelligence system, similar to the structure of the human brain, and embodying it in a robot is likely how AI could ultimately outsmart humans.

This book narrates how AIs have an architecture that is similar to the human brain. Several AIs, all specialising in different abilities are all linked as part of one larger intelligence system, therefore embodying artificial intelligence in robots to gain an understanding of the world, learn as humans do and become self-aware of their present environment to act accordingly.

“Scientists have argued for decades over whether AI will ever match or exceed human intelligence, but now that AI is advancing at an unprecedented rate, this question has become ever more important”, said Professor Prescott.

Yet AIs are mainly trained to be good at one thing at a time, for example, the generative AIs produce text, images or video.

Large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, don’t understand the meaning, consequently producing text based on maths and processing. They understand the relationship between words, but they don’t understand how words relate to the world.

The Sheffield professor says that for LLMs to get this understanding they could be connected to other AIs, such as vision AIs that produce art.

For AIs to match or exceed human intelligence, they also need to understand the world around them and acquire self-awareness. Professor Prescott believes the best way to achieve this is through multiple connected AIs, all specialising in different tasks, being embodied in a robot, as this will enable them to interact with their surroundings, learn and experience the world as humans do.

“There have been some major breakthroughs recently, particularly in deep learning and generative AIs such as ChatGPT, but this isn’t real intelligence like we have as humans. Aspects of human intelligence, such as scientific discovery, aspects of creativity and imagination will remain beyond AI until we build it with a cognitive architecture that is similar to the human brain. For AI to match or exceed human intelligence it also needs a body to help it gain a genuine understanding of the world around it, something which it can only get through robotics.” added the professor.