劍橋雅思5 Test 3閱讀Passage 3原文翻譯The return of Artificial Intelligence

劍橋雅思5 Test 3 Passage 3閱讀原文翻譯

自然段A

After years in the wilderness,the term‘a(chǎn)rtificial intelligence’(AI)seems poised to make a comeback.AI was big in the 1980s but vanished in the 1990s.It re-entered public consciousness with the release of AI,a movie about a robot boy.This has ignited public debate about AI,but the term is also being used once more within the computer industry.Researchers,executives and marketing people are now using the expression without irony or inverted commas.And it is not always hype.The term is being applied,with some justification,to products that depend on technology that was originally developed by AI researchers.Admittedly,the rehabilitation of the term has a long way to go,and some firms still prefer to avoid using it.But the fact that others are starting to use it again suggests that AI has moved on from being seen as an over-ambitious and under-achieving field of research.

在荒廢多年之后，“人工智能”（AI）一詞似乎勢(shì)必卷土重來(lái)。AI在20世紀(jì)80年代十分流行，但在20世紀(jì)90年代消失了。一部關(guān)于機(jī)器人男孩的電影《AI》的發(fā)布重新喚起了公眾的意識(shí)。這點(diǎn)燃了關(guān)于AI的公開(kāi)辯論，但該術(shù)語(yǔ)也再次被計(jì)算機(jī)行業(yè)使用。研究人員，管理人員和市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)人員現(xiàn)在正在使用該表述，而不會(huì)產(chǎn)生諷刺或帶有引號(hào)。而且它并不總是炒作。該術(shù)語(yǔ)被合理地用于描述一些產(chǎn)品。它們建立在最初由AI研究者所開(kāi)發(fā)的技術(shù)之上。誠(chéng)然，該術(shù)語(yǔ)的恢復(fù)還有很長(zhǎng)的路要走，并且一些公司仍然希望避免使用它。但是，其他人再次開(kāi)始使用它的事實(shí)表明，AI已從被視為過(guò)于雄心勃勃且成績(jī)欠佳的研究領(lǐng)域大步向前發(fā)展。

自然段B

The field was launched,and the term‘a(chǎn)rtificial intelligence’coined,at a conference in 1956 by a group of researchers that included Marvin Minsky,John McCarthy,Herbert Simon and Alan Newell,all of whom went on to become leading figures in the field.The expression provided an attractive but informative name for a research programme that encompassed such previously disparate fields as operations research,cybernetics,logic and computer science.The goal they shared was an attempt to capture or mimic human abilities using machines.That said,different groups of researchers attacked different problems,from speech recognition to chess playing,in different ways;AI unified the field in name only.But it was a term that captured the public imagination.

在1956年的一次會(huì)議上，由馬文·明斯基，約翰·麥卡錫，赫伯特·西蒙和艾倫·紐厄爾等人組成的研究小組提出了這一研究領(lǐng)域，并創(chuàng)造了“人工智能”一詞。他們后來(lái)全都成為該領(lǐng)域的佼佼者。該表達(dá)為研究計(jì)劃提供了一個(gè)引人入勝但具有參考價(jià)值的名稱(chēng)。該研究計(jì)劃涵蓋了諸如運(yùn)籌學(xué)，控制論，邏輯學(xué)和計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)等先前分散的領(lǐng)域。他們的共同目標(biāo)是嘗試使用機(jī)器捕捉或模仿人類(lèi)的能力。也就是說(shuō)，不同的研究人員群體以不同的方式攻克不同的問(wèn)題，從語(yǔ)音識(shí)別到下棋。AI只是在名字上將這一領(lǐng)域整合起來(lái)。但這個(gè)詞激發(fā)了公眾的想象。

自然段C

Most researchers agree that AI peaked around 1985.A public reared on science-fiction movies and excited by the growing power of computers had high expectations.For years,AI researchers had implied that a breakthrough was just around the corner.Marvin Minsky said in 1967 that within a generation the problem of creating‘a(chǎn)rtificial intelligence’would be substantially solved.Prototypes of medical-diagnosis programs and speech recognition software appeared to be making progress.It proved to be a false dawn.Thinking computers and household robots failed to materialise,and a backlash ensued.‘There was undue optimism in the early 1980s,’says David Leake,a researcher at Indiana University.‘Then when people realised these were hard problems,there was retrenchment.By the late 1980s,the term AI was being avoided by many researchers,who opted instead to align themselves with specific sub-disciplines such as neural networks,agent technology,case-based reasoning,and so on.’

大多數(shù)研究人員都同意A I在1985年左右達(dá)到頂峰。對(duì)科幻電影感興趣，并對(duì)計(jì)算機(jī)日益強(qiáng)大的功能感到興奮的公眾對(duì)此寄予厚望。多年來(lái)，AI研究人員一直暗示突破指日可待。馬文·明斯基（Marvin Minsky）在1967年表示，創(chuàng)造“人工智能”的問(wèn)題將在一代人以?xún)?nèi)得到實(shí)質(zhì)性解決。醫(yī)學(xué)診斷程序和語(yǔ)音識(shí)別軟件的原型似乎正在取得進(jìn)展。事實(shí)證明那是虛假的曙光。會(huì)思考的計(jì)算機(jī)和家用機(jī)器人未能實(shí)現(xiàn)，反彈隨之而來(lái)。印第安納大學(xué)的研究人員戴維·萊克（David Leake）說(shuō)：“在20世紀(jì)80年代初，人們過(guò)分樂(lè)觀。然后，當(dāng)人們意識(shí)到這些是十分困難的問(wèn)題時(shí)，緊縮就發(fā)生了。到20世紀(jì)80年代后期，許多研究人員都不再使用‘AI’一詞。他們選擇將自己與特定的子學(xué)科聯(lián)系在一起，例如神經(jīng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)，代理技術(shù)，基于案例的推理等等?！?/p>

自然段D

Ironically,in some ways AI was a victim of its own success.Whenever an apparently mundane problem was solved,such as building a system that could land an aircraft unattended,the problem was deemed not to have been AI in the first place.‘If it works,it can’t be AI,’as Dr Leake characterises it.The effect of repeatedly moving the goal-posts in this way was that AI came to refer to‘blue-sky’research that was still years away from commercialisation.Researchers joked that AI stood for‘a(chǎn)lmost implemented’.Meanwhile,the technologies that made it onto the market,such as speech recognition,language translation and decision-support software,were no longer regarded as AI.Yet all three once fell well within the umbrella of AI research.

具有諷刺意味的是，從某種方式上說(shuō)，AI是自己成功的受害者。每當(dāng)一個(gè)平凡的問(wèn)題得到解決，如構(gòu)建無(wú)人操作的飛機(jī)降落系統(tǒng)，該問(wèn)題就會(huì)立刻被視為不是AI。正如Leake博士概括的那樣，“如果它行的通，它就不是AI。”。這種反復(fù)移動(dòng)目標(biāo)方式造成了如下影響：AI指的是距商業(yè)化還差幾年的“blue-sky”研究。研究人員開(kāi)玩笑說(shuō)AI代表“幾乎已實(shí)現(xiàn)”。同時(shí)，已經(jīng)進(jìn)入市場(chǎng)的技術(shù)，如語(yǔ)音識(shí)別，語(yǔ)言翻譯和決策輔助軟件等，不再被當(dāng)作AI來(lái)看待。然而，這三者曾一度處于AI研究的范圍之內(nèi)。

自然段E

But the tide may now be turning,according to Dr Leake.HNC Software of San Diego,backed by a government agency,reckon that their new approach to artificial intelligence is the most powerful and promising approach ever discovered.HNC claim that their system,based on a cluster of 30 processors,could be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield or extract a voice signal from a noisy background–tasks humans can do well,but computers cannot.‘Whether or not their technology lives up to the claims made for it,the fact that HNC are emphasising the use of AI is itself an interesting development,’says Dr Leake.

但是據(jù)Leake博士說(shuō)，現(xiàn)在這一潮流可能正在扭轉(zhuǎn)。由政府機(jī)構(gòu)支持的圣地亞哥HNC軟件公司認(rèn)為，他們研究人工智能的新方法是迄今為止最強(qiáng)大，最有前途的方法。HNC聲稱(chēng)，他們的系統(tǒng)基于30個(gè)處理器的集群，可用于在戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)上發(fā)現(xiàn)偽裝的車(chē)輛或從嘈雜的背景中提取語(yǔ)音信號(hào)-這些都是人類(lèi)可以做的很好，但計(jì)算機(jī)無(wú)法完成的任務(wù)。Leake博士說(shuō)：“無(wú)論他們的技術(shù)是否達(dá)到自己宣稱(chēng)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，HNC對(duì)使用AI的強(qiáng)調(diào)本身就是一個(gè)有趣的發(fā)展?！?/p>

自然段F

Another factor that may boost the prospects for AI in the near future is that investors are now looking for firms using clever technology,rather than just a clever business model,to differentiate themselves.In particular,the problem of information overload,exacerbated by the growth of e-mail and the explosion in the number of web pages,means there are plenty of opportunities for new technologies to help filter and categorise information–classic AI problems.That may mean that more artificial intelligence companies will start to emerge to meet this challenge.

不久的將來(lái)可能提振AI前景的另一個(gè)因素是，投資者現(xiàn)在正在尋找使用聰明的技術(shù)而不是聰明的商業(yè)模式來(lái)使自己與眾不同的公司。尤其是，電子郵件的增長(zhǎng)和網(wǎng)頁(yè)數(shù)量的激增加劇了信息過(guò)載的問(wèn)題，這意味著有很多機(jī)會(huì)可以利用新技術(shù)來(lái)幫助對(duì)信息進(jìn)行過(guò)濾和分類(lèi)-經(jīng)典的AI問(wèn)題。這可能意味著將出現(xiàn)更多的人工智能公司以應(yīng)對(duì)這一挑戰(zhàn)。

自然段G

The 1969 film,2001:A Space Odyssey,featured an intelligent computer called HAL 9000.As well as understanding and speaking English,HAL could play chess and even learned to lipread.HAL thus encapsulated the optimism of the 1960s that intelligent computers would be widespread by 2001.But 2001 has been and gone,and there is still no sign of a HAL-like computer.Individual systems can play chess or transcribe speech,but a general theory of machine intelligence still remains elusive.It may be,however,that the comparison with HAL no longer seems quite so important,and AI can now be judged by what it can do,rather than by how well it matches up to a 30-year-old science-fiction film.‘People are beginning to realise that there are impressive things that these systems can do,’says Dr Leake hopefully.

1969年的電影《2001：太空漫游指南》以一部名為HAL 9000的智能計(jì)算機(jī)為特色。除了能理解和說(shuō)英語(yǔ)外，HAL還能下象棋，甚至學(xué)會(huì)讀唇語(yǔ)。HAL由此代表了20世紀(jì)60年代的樂(lè)觀看法，即智能計(jì)算機(jī)將在2001年得到廣泛應(yīng)用。但是2001年已經(jīng)過(guò)去了，現(xiàn)在仍然沒(méi)有類(lèi)似HAL的計(jì)算機(jī)的跡象。存在獨(dú)立的系統(tǒng)可以下棋或轉(zhuǎn)錄語(yǔ)音，但是機(jī)器智能的一般理論仍然難以捉摸。但是，與HAL的比較似乎不再那么重要了，現(xiàn)在可以通過(guò)它能做什么來(lái)判斷AI，而不是根據(jù)它與一部擁有30年歷史的科幻電影的匹配程度來(lái)判斷。Leake博士滿(mǎn)懷希望地說(shuō)：“人們開(kāi)始意識(shí)到這些系統(tǒng)可以做些令人印象深刻的事情。”

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