Do Starfleet ships have AI ?

[SomosFuga]

IIRC there was an ep when the computer went crazy and they told that at some point they tryed to give the computer personality but didn't work well.

[kostmayer]

IIRC there was an ep when the computer went crazy and they told that at some point they tryed to give the computer personality but didn't work well.

You sure that wasn't Babylon 5?

[Graham Kennedy]

Kirk's personal quarters computer acquired a personality in a TOS episode... kept calling him "dear" all the time, until he basically threatened to lobotomise it unless it stopped.

Computer : Computed and recorded, dear.
Kirk : Computer, you will not address me in that manner. Compute.
Computer : Computed, dear.
Kirk : Mr. Spock, I ordered this computer and its interlinking systems repaired.
Spock : I have investigated it, Captain. To correct the fault will require an overhaul of the entire computer system and a minimum of three weeks at a starbase.
Kirk : I wouldn't mind so much if it didn't get so... affectionate.
Spock : It also has an unfortunate tendency to giggle.
Christopher : I take it a lady computer is not routine.
Spock : We'd put in at Signet 14 for general repairs. Signet 14 is a planet dominated by women. They felt the ship's computer system lacked a personality. They gave it one. Female, of course.

Since Kirk solved the problem with a threat, then it certainly SEEMS like the computer had a real understanding of what was going on.

Star Trek computers are certainly AI in the sense that they have an incredibly good understanding of context and fuzzy meanings - you seem to be able to state requests in extremely general terms and the computer gets it right 99% of the time. They even have door sensors that can tell when you want to go through a door and when you just want to lean on it!

But true consciousness and self awareness... I don't think so. They actually addressed it in Measure of a Man :

Maddox : Let me put it another way. Would you permit the computer on the Enterprise to refuse a refit?
Phillipa : An interesting point, but the Enterprise computer is property. Is Data?

The fact that Maddox brings this up as something "obviously silly" indicates to me that starship computers are not regarded as sentient or intelligent in any way.

[SomosFuga]

You sure that wasn't Babylon 5?

Maybe, i don't know.

Starfleet computers have always been presented as the traditional dumb computers.

Its really kind of stupid that Starfleet hasn't been shown to incorporate artificial intelligence, it would make heavy automation of ship systems much easier.

Realistically, there should be a minimum amount of crew on board with most systems automated, even in 23rd century starships.

I mean, we're already racing toward real AI computers, you'd think by the 23rd or 24th centuries Starfleet would have Halo-like AI's.

We know there is some degree of automation,
i.e. Kirk and friends stole the Enterprise in "The Search for Spock", they were five people. Also there is a ENT ep when naked Flox was left to fly the ship through a space anomaly, he is only one man and he's a doctor, not even a SF doctor, he should not have the know how to operate the ship, so to operate the ship must be quite easy. There is a very similar ep in VOY. The best example i can think of is when in VOY "Hope and Fear" they found the Dauntles wich had supposedly traveled half the galaxy all by herself, granted, this wasn't a SF ship but they didn't know that and they assumed it was true fast enough, it has to be at least possible to be taken as credible by voyager's crew.

[SomosFuga]

-wait... what? by voyayer's crew? are you assuming they are in any way competent?

-sorry, nevermind.

[alexmann]

Yes, there is AI but it does not control much and is mainly minor AI

[Graham Kennedy]

Depends on what you mean by AI.

Given the size of the ships and the tiny crews they have, they pretty much have to automate a HELL of a lot more than any present day ship could... computers seem able to interpret instructions in some pretty high level ways and perform some very complex tasks as a matter of routine. Take, for example, the instruction given in "Mirror Mirror" :

"Produce all data relevant to the recent ion storm. Correlate following hypothesis : could a storm of such magnitude cause a power surge in the transporter circuits creating a momentary interdimensional contact with a parallel universe?" -then- "At such a moment, could persons in each universe, in the act of beaming, transpose with their counterparts in the other universe?" -and- "Could conditions necessary to such an event be created artificially using the ship's power? Record procedure."

A computer that can interpret that and produce a meaningful answer is pretty impressive.

But on the other hand, their computers certainly aren't sentient as a matter of routine, at least in TNG - people's reaction to Data is proof enough of that.

But the weird one is in Voyager, where we have a computer that is not sentient but which can run a piece of software that apparently is. Lord knows how that works.

[Captain Seafort]

Don't forget the E-D's computer apparently developed sentience itself at one point.

[Graham Kennedy]

True, but everybody was shocked that it happened and it lost that sentience afterwards. (Bloody stupid episode as I recall.)

I do wonder, though, did that mark some sort of turning point where Federation computers reached a point where sentience was appearing? If so then safeguards to prevent it may have been put in place, which is why everybody is so surprised that Voyager's EMH did the same thing?

[Deepcrush]

A question for me is "Does Trek AI require or declare sentience?".

[Mikey]

I think that at one point, there was an almost Butlerian aversion to sentient AI. M-5 was perhaps on the borderline of sentience, and was greeted with horror - at least, after it went on its little murderous rampage. Surely the computers had impressive AI, as GK points out, but the universal paucity of robotics - including the novelty with which robotics were treated - indicates a pretty widespread avoidance of sentient AI.

[Deepcrush]

Bonus points for the Dune reference, double bonus points for it being right on.

[Mikey]

Well, I knew at least you would recognize it.

[Deepcrush]

Yeah... plus with that I can say...

FOR THE EMPEROR!

[Sonic Glitch]

I think that at one point, there was an almost Butlerian aversion to sentient AI. M-5 was perhaps on the borderline of sentience, and was greeted with horror - at least, after it went on its little murderous rampage. Surely the computers had impressive AI, as GK points out, but the universal paucity of robotics - including the novelty with which robotics were treated - indicates a pretty widespread avoidance of sentient AI.

In fact, the fact that M5 went on a murderous rampage may be the reason for such a strong aversion to AI in later Trek. IIRC, Dr. Soongs experiments were also frowned upon and worrisome to his peers. (Granted, Lore did turn out to be kind of crazy)