What is intelligence?

While it may be unlikely that we will have superintelligent computers or robots like the ones in films such as Terminator or I, Robot anytime soon, Daeyeol Lee believes that investigating the differences between human intelligence and artificial intelligence can help us better understand the future of technology and our relationship with it. "It may eventually be possible for humans to create artificial life that can physically replicate by itself, and only then will we have created truly artificial intelligence," Lee says. "Until then, machines will always only be surrogates of human intelligence, which unfortunately still leaves open the possibility of abuse by people controlling the AI." In his new book, Birth of Intelligence (Oxford University Press, 2020), Lee traces the development of the brain and intelligence from self-replicating RNA to different animal species, humans, and even computers in order to address fundamental questions on the origins, development, and limitations of intelligence. Lee is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Neuroeconomics who holds appointments in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine.