Giving AI Something We Don’t Have – Common Sense

In my last post I outlined that there is a quest in AI research to find an elusive, core component that will allow AI to move from operating solely on the level of knowledge to the level of knowledge and understanding. I mentioned that this important component will never be found because understanding (the real, profound form) is intrinsic to the human soul. We are indeed unique creatures in this world.

There is something else that is commonly thrown around the AI community as a grand obstacle that must be surpassed for AI to achieve any real semblance of intelligence: the problem of common sense. At the moment this is an unsolved problem that has in fact been worked on since the 1950s.

Machines lack common sense. They’re just, well, machines. Lifeless, sterile, empty devices or programs that can be switched on and off into “existence” at will. Sometimes they look alive or intelligent but it’s generally not very hard to push a program to show that it is still just a barren machine exhibiting no intelligence and lacking that essential feature of common sense.

Common sense pervades our everyday lives as human beings. It is an instinct that allows us to make sound judgments on practical matters without recourse to in-depth reasoning. We just know when something should or shouldn’t be done or when something is right or wrong because, well, it’s common sense to know these things and most reasonable people would agree with our judgments.

It’s interesting, though, to consider that we’re trying to solve this problem of a lack of common sense in machines when it appears as though as a society we’re losing that sense/instinct ourselves. More and more we hear of ridiculous reports of people doing utterly stupid things that break the inherent logic of common sense.

US lawsuits are a low hanging fruit in this respect. We’ve all heard these insane stories of people suing for dumb things so I won’t repeat them. In fact, I’ll steer away from them because one can easily argue that these are just individuals looking to get rich quick and hence they’re not necessarily indicative of an ill society.

Let’s move on to other things, then.

I’m going to talk about my beloved home country of Australia. Slowly but steadily we’re turning into a nanny state. In the state of Tasmania now if you travel even 1 km/hr over the speed limit you are deemed to be speeding and can incur a fine if caught. That’s right, anything over the maximum speed limit is classified as breaking the law. It doesn’t matter if your speedometer is slightly incorrect or if you for one brief moment take your eyes off your dashboard and don’t notice your speed creeping up because you are going down hill. There is no leeway here. “Over is over,” as the catch phrase goes there down.

Of course, this law was introduced for “safety reasons” and not as another means to bring in revenue. The government truly cares about us. Hence, nobody bats an eyelid – and this is a sign of an ill society.

There’s more of course. When I was growing up in my home state of South Australia we had some of the best playgrounds at schools and parks imaginable to a kid. They’re all gone now, replaced with unimaginative and adventure-less equipment. Why? Safety for our children. Decades ago parents understood that kids needed to take risks and to feel adventure in order to foster a feeling of accomplishment. It was obvious that kids would come home with scratches, bruises, and even broken bones. Not any more. Every child now experiences blandness like every other child and as a result has been turned into “just another brick in the wall”.

Dick Smith, famous Australian adventurer, entrepreneur, and national icon laments this fact in his autobiography entitled “My Adventurous Life”. Without risk one does not live and one cannot mature. This was once common sense.

What Australia has done in the name of public safety is sad. The whole attitude towards it pervades everything now from workplaces to businesses to sports clubs to organisations to our leisure times. It all really came to the fore during the COVID pandemic. Some of the restrictions imposed on us at the time completely broke any common sense rules. I particularly recall my state’s health minister telling people going to a football game (at a large stadium) to not touch the ball if it went into the crowd because the ball could spread the virus.

That’s my country, though. Not everyone will relate, however, so let’s move on to more global issues.

How about high art? On my other blog I wrote an article a few months ago in which I lament the fact that we have lost the sense of true art. I’m not talking about the everyday, consumer art here. I’m talking about art that is capable of touching the deepest depths of our existence. It would be the art that one would generally, for example, display in museums or galleries because it would be deemed worth preserving for future generations.

At least that was once the case. It’s no secret that people nowadays consider art to be dead.

If you have visited a modern art gallery or museum recently you will know what I am talking about. I just don’t understand today’s “art”. Nobody does, in fact! In his very informative book entitled “The Death of the Artist“, William Deresiewicz outlines how art has become institutionalised. One now needs a degree to “understand” it. All those nonsensical squiggles and blotches and disharmonies and bizarre architectural distortions need to be explained. No more can one break down into tears in front of an exquisite sculpture or painting. Art doesn’t speak to us directly now.

As Renoir himself once said: “If it needs to be explained, it is not art.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Today’s art is not art if it doesn’t evoke anything in the populace. You may recall the furor that surrounded the unveiling of an MLK statue earlier this year (Jan 2023). Tucker Carlson said it outright: “It’s not art, it’s a middle finger.” Moreover, it cost US$10 million to make. High art? Give me a break! Where is the common sense?

You can argue, once again, that it’s the institutions that are the cause of this. To some extent this is true. But society is to blame as well as we allow this to transpire and it has become the norm. Why aren’t we calling out for true art to surround, inspire and hearten us? Beauty enlivens the soul. We should be striving to immerse ourselves in it. We’ve lost that element – it was once common sense.

True beauty? I can’t even say that now because objective truth and goodness does not exist. Everything is relative. Your truth is just as valid as mine. Tolerance is the name of the game today. But surely some people are more right than others sometimes?

For example, people are starting to identify as partially or entirely nonhuman. Otherkin is the name given to members of this subculture. Some otherkin identify as animals (and act and dress accordingly) others as some spiritual phenomena. In the name of tolerance and “being nice” I have to go along with such identifications and change the way I relate to these people. But what if they’re wrong? They can’t be, of course. I’m just a bigot and I’m the one being ridiculous.

Common sense has left the building.

I can keep going like this listing phenomenon after phenomenon showing a society more and more devoid of common sense. Cancel culture… scientism… Seriously, the list goes on.

So, how can we give something to AI we are beginning to lack ourselves? What a mess! AI will not work this out, either. It works off of data, and the data is skewed and biassed.

Now, some computer scientists will argue that the common sense they’re referring to and want to bequeath on AI is of a more primitive type. E.g. if Tweety is a bird, the machine should know that it can probably fly and can’t breathe underwater. Fair enough. But if that’s the case, then this shouldn’t be classified as common sense but simple “understanding of reality” or even “background knowledge of reality”. It’s a misnomer.

On the other hand, we probably should incorporate both forms of common sense (the primitive and the more lofty) into one understanding of the term and expect an AI entity to have both. Common sense is common sense, i.e. it’s an instinct that allows us to know when something is right and wrong instantly – and perhaps it’s impossible to provide a clear boundary between the two forms. Maybe they go hand in hand?

That discussion aside, we’re regardless not doing any favours to future AI research if we ourselves are losing such a fundamental element of our existence. Perhaps we’re degrading into lifeless entities? Or “soulless” entities might be the better term here. That’s what happens, though, when godlessness becomes the norm in a society. All order collapses and nonsense rules over common sense.

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