When A.I. Matures, It May Call Jürgen Schmidhuber 'Dad'

John Markoff The New York Times Originally posted November 27, 2016 Here is an excerpt: Dr. Schmidhuber also has a grand vision for A.I. -- that self-aware or "conscious machines" are just around the corner -- that causes eyes to roll among some of his peers. To put a fine point on the debate: Is artificial intelligence an engineering discipline, or a godlike field on the cusp of creating a new superintelligent species? Dr. Schmidhuber is firmly in the god camp. He maintains that the basic concepts for such technologies already exist, and that there is nothing magical about human consciousness. "Generally speaking, consciousness and self-awareness are overrated," he said, arguing that machine consciousness will emerge from more powerful computers and software algorithms much like those he has already designed.