I do think that understanding intelligence is critical for developing AI, because computers are not subject to the same evolutionary circumstances. If computers were, then they could be. Now if you are talking about an organic computer, and you mean to include existing animal brains, well, people already knew that, and they meant to talk about the inorganic computer. Maybe after (or concurrently) inorganic AI, people will take on the challenge of designing intelligent organisms that fit in the ecosystem.
I think intelligence may be composed of several sub-modules, the combination of which, working in concert, produces the sought-after effects people often talk about when they talk about the Turing test.
I do think tests which propose to pin AI on human characteristics is not as useful as an investigative avenue as it could be. I think the first real test of AI is the identification of causal factors in a phenomena. I think another major point of intelligence would be if AI could perform arbitrary analogical mapping. I think all of math is arbitrary analogical mapping, where you start with a set of capricious but useful building blocks, build a big structure and then... analogically map the math onto a phenomena.
I think these two ingredients makes for the kind of mental abilities that people have been craving for in AI, abilities like a computer developing its own software to use hardware, or a computer which models and reasons about phenomena.
I think intelligence may be composed of several sub-modules, the combination of which, working in concert, produces the sought-after effects people often talk about when they talk about the Turing test.
I do think tests which propose to pin AI on human characteristics is not as useful as an investigative avenue as it could be. I think the first real test of AI is the identification of causal factors in a phenomena. I think another major point of intelligence would be if AI could perform arbitrary analogical mapping. I think all of math is arbitrary analogical mapping, where you start with a set of capricious but useful building blocks, build a big structure and then... analogically map the math onto a phenomena.
I think these two ingredients makes for the kind of mental abilities that people have been craving for in AI, abilities like a computer developing its own software to use hardware, or a computer which models and reasons about phenomena.