every day a large portion of the
population is at the mercy of a rising
technology if you actually understand
what it is artificial intelligence
you know Hal 9000 and Marvin the
Paranoid Android thanks to books and
movies each generation has formed its
own fantasy of a world ruled or at least
served by robots we've been conditioned
to expect flying cars that steer clear
of traffic and robotic maids whipping up
our weekday dinner but if the age of AI
is here why not our lives look more like
the Jetsons
well for starters that's a cartoon and
really if you've ever browsed Netflix
movie suggestions or told Alexa to order
a pizza
you're probably interacting with
artificial intelligence more than you
realize and that's kind of the point
AI is designed so you don't realize
there's a computer calling the shots but
that also makes understanding what AI is
and what it's not a little complicated
in basic terms a AI is a broad area of
computer science that makes machines
seem like they have human intelligence
so it's not only programming a computer
to drive a car by obeying traffic
signals but it's when that program also
learns to exhibit signs of human like
road rage as intimidating as it may seem
this technology isn't new actually for
the past half a century it's been an
idea ahead of its time the term
artificial intelligence was first coined
back in 1956 by Dartmouth professor John
McCarthy he called together a group of
computer scientists and mathematicians
to see if machines could learn like a
young child does using trial and error
to develop formal reasoning the project
proposal says they'll figure out how to
make machines use language form
abstractions and concepts solve kinds of
problems now reserved for humans and
improve themselves that was more than 60
years ago
since then AI has remained for the most
part in university classrooms and
super-secret labs but that's changing
like all exponential curves it's hard to
tell when a line that slowly ticking
upwards is going to skyrocket but during
the past few years a couple of factors
have led to AI becoming the next big
thing first huge amounts of data are
being created every minute in fact 90%
of the world's data has been generated
in the past two years and now thanks to
advances in processing speeds computers
can actually make sense of all this
information more quickly because of this
tech giants and venture capitalists have
bought into AI and are infusing the
market with cash and new applications
very soon AI will become a little less
artificial and a lot more intelligent
now the question is should you brace
yourself for yet another Terminator
movie live on your city streets not
exactly in fact stop thinking of robots
when it comes to AI a robot is nothing
more than the shell concealing what's
actually used to power the technology
that means AI can manifest itself in
many different ways let's break down the
options first you have your buds they're
text-based and incredibly powerful but
they have limitations ask a weather bot
for the forecast it will tell you it's
partly cloudy with a high of 57 but ask
that same bot what time it is in Tokyo
and it'll get a little confused that's
because the bots creator only programmed
it to give you the weather by pulling
from a specific data source natural
language processing makes these BOTS a
bit more sophisticated when you ask
Syria or Cortana where the closest gas
station is it's really just translating
your voice into text feeding it to a
search engine and reading the answer
back in human syntax so in other words
you don't have to speak in code at the
far end of the spectrum is machine
learning and honestly it's one of the
most exciting areas of AI
like a human a machine retains
information and becomes smarter over
time but unlike a human it's not
susceptible to things like short-term
memory loss information overload sleep
deprivation and distractions but how do
these machines actually learn well while
it may be easy for a human to know the
difference between a cat and a dock for
a computer not so much you see when
you're only considering physical
appearance the difference between cats
and dogs can be a little gray you can
say cats have pointed ears and dogs have
floppy ears but those rules aren't
universal between tail length fur
texture and color there are a lot of
options and that means a lot of tedious
rules someone would have to program
manually to help a computer spot the
difference but remember machine learning
is about making machines learn like
humans and like any toddler that means
they have to learn by experience with
machine learning programs analyze
thousands of examples to build an
algorithm it then tweaks the algorithm
based on if it achieves its goal over
time the program actually gets smarter
that's how machines like IBM's Watson
can diagnose cancer compose classical
symphonies or crush Ken Jennings at
jeopardy some programs even mimic the
way the human brain is structured
complete with neural networks that help
humans and now machines solve problems
generations have long imagined the
ramifications of AI visualizing a
society where machines seek revenge and
wreak havoc on human society however the
more logical and pressing question is
how will a AI affect your job will it
make your work obsolete just like the
Industrial Revolution it's not human
versus machine it's human and machine
versus problem the point is that
artificial intelligence helps you
accomplish more in less time taking on
the repetitive tasks of your job while
you master the strategy and
relationships that way humans can do
what they do best be human
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