At a recent conference hosted by Silicon Valley Forum, industry experts shared their insights as to where artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning are headed. A number of insights are pointing to the significant contribution AI will bring to the table when its true potential is unleashed.

"This notion that evolution ends with humans is silly," stated keynoter Steve Jurvetson, partner and managing director of DFJ. "I think what humans really mean is we don't want to compete with something smarter than us in our lifetime. I think you can shift our selfish sense of supremacy to a symbolic trajectory of progress."

Some speakers said progress in AI would give systems the ability to talk to each other quickly and simply, while others believe the ability to reason and make inferences will be the true differentiator in intelligence. Regardless, Citrix Startup Accelerator's CTO Michael Harries said, any entrepreneurs that aren't familiarising themselves with AI have "rocks in their heads."

According to Modar Alaoui, AI's immediate future lies in ambient intelligence in smartphones and smart cars. Alaoui is the founder and CEO of Eyeris, which develops artificial intelligence for facial recognition. Several speakers said they would like to see artificially intelligent robots or computers that learn without being told, then "self-tune" after solving a problem.

Flexibility is key to AI's future

"Robots have an ability to adapt to their environment; they have the ability to learn. But the ability to go on and extend that model is really intelligence. I think we will see that, but that's the jump we haven't made," Kevin Albert, CEO and co-founder of robotics startup Pneubotics, noted.

Jeff Hawkins, CEO and co-founder of Numenta, a firm that has developed a computational framework for AI, said: Intelligence shouldn't be measured by any particular task. What characterises intelligence is extreme flexibility building a flexible learning system. [Some AI is] focused on being human-like; our work here is not being human-like at all. It's about understanding the general principles of intelligence that we can apply to all kinds of problems.

While there is a variety of ways to attack the development and fine tuning of artificial intelligence, including training machines "like children," according to panellists, Hawkins believes reverse engineering the neural cortex is the fastest way to intelligent machines. Neuroscience has shown that language and touch work on the same principles, and Hawkins expects a machine's abilities to unfold in a similar way once scientists are able to tap inherent potential.

"Once we understand those principles of the neocortex, we can modify them, we don't need to be true to evolutionary biology," Hawkins said. "We still have so much to learn about the basics of how biology works. Progress is incremental but also exponential. We're going to finish this off in less than five years, I believe."

If the thought of enlightened machines in the next five years is too much, Hawkins assured attendees that artificial intelligence isn't inherently dangerous. The ability to self-replicate is dangerous, however.

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Artificial intelligence still has more to offer