AI for Humanity
Having grown up watching Star-Trek or Star Wars like me, many of you would be able to relate to what I am about to share here.
Science Fiction no-more
Powered by human creativity, Science-Fiction authors and movie makers have often propelled scientists to stretch the limits of science and deliver innovations that make our lives easier. While we are still many years away from intergalactic travel, advances in computing and technology have made our lives interesting and comfortable — much more than when our ancestors used to live in caves and had to rely on friction to light some fire for food and safety.
Thanks to some games computers have played against humans and won in recent times (Chess, Jeopardy, AlphaGO, Poker etc), the conversations around dinner table have become increasingly tech savvy and man v/s machine battle discussions have become Artificial Intelligence (AI) centric lately.
While the doomsday prophecies are still around, notwithstanding past warnings from the likes of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, a large majority of the world has started to believe in the power of Artificial Intelligence . Images like those from popular sci-fi flicks like Terminator, Robocop, Cyborg and Matrix still flash in mind when we talk advancements in Robotics and AI. The soft spoken embodiments of AI machines like Softbank’s Pepper, IBM Watson and Saudi Arabia’s first humanoid citizen Sophia are perhaps steps in changing the negative perception of AI amongst the masses.
Now some of you may be thinking of AI to be a fad going through the yo-yo cycles of seventy years of winters and spring. If you think AI is still stuck in some academic or corporate research labs using gimmicky game plays & cool robotic tricks to prove the concept, I must point out that whether you realize it or not, you are already getting the benefits of this technology. If you use a smartphone or home device based voice assistant (Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Google Hone etc) or enjoy online shopping or movie streaming recommendations — you are already a consumer of AI technology.
Historic perspectives
Named after the legendary computer scientist and mathematician Alan Turing, the Turing Test determines a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to that of a human. Pioneers in the field of Man-Machine synergy, William Ross, Ashby Licklider and Douglas Englebart had been calling out a need for integration of human capabilities with that of a computer since late 1950’s & early 1960s as “Intelligence Amplification” long before the term Augmented Intelligence came into vogue. Of course today’s Artificial Intelligence principles and theories have been built on the shoulders of thought leaders and giants of yore, but it is still with caution and trepidation that our society is opening up towards embracing AI in the mainstream. Concerns about human job loss continue to be raised in this AI driven fourth industrial revolution (or Industry 4.0 as popular media calls it) as they have been raised since the first wave of mechanization that led Luddites to take centre stage. Just a couple of years ago however, a research report on automation claimed that while two thirds of Americans felt the nature of their work will change within few years, but 80% felt their jobs will be unaffected. I guess it’s time to think again as rapid advancement in Artificial Intelligence embedded automation is already causing disruption in industries around the world — replacing warehouse workers with robots, operating self-driving cars and even helping farmers grow better crops.
AI Research comes of age
AI research has explored a variety of problems and approaches since its inception, but for the last couple of decades, it has been focused on the problems surrounding the construction of intelligent agents. This includes systems that perceive, sense, respond and act in some environment with autonomy and intelligence and improve themselves as they learn to get better at their craft via feedback & learning — supervised as well as unsupervised. In this context, “intelligence” is related to the ability to make good decisions, plans, or inferences.
Various component tasks such as speech recognition, image classification, autonomous vehicles, machine translation, legged locomotion, and question-answering systems have benefited tremendously with infusion of AI. The availability of shared theoretical frameworks from researchers and techniques from practitioners, combined with the availability of massive data and computing power, has yielded remarkable successes in the applied AI domain for the real world applications. No wonder recent compensation for AI researchers has been shooting through the roof.
Needless to say, our lives are being significantly impacted by all of this as the AI revolution is sweeping our business and personal lives. As Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently said “AI is more profound to humanity than fire or electricity.”
My personal connection
I have been involved with this field as a practitioner long before it was sexy to be a data scientist or an AI researcher. Helping clients adopt advanced analytics and embed AI/ML technologies as part of their business operations and competitive strategy over the past decade has given me a broader perspective of combining process, automation and emerging technologies. I am convinced that human imagination combined with artificial intelligence will drive innovation further and faster than ever before. Many in my network know about my penchant and involvement with non-profit organizations and love for entrepreneurship for a long time as I have been volunteering with ASEI (American Society of Engineers ), IQ International and TiE to name a few. This week, marks a milestone when my profession and passion come together in a synergistic fashion as TiE dedicates their annual entrepreneurship conference to AI. Building on the twenty-five year legacy of TiEcon (which I had written about previously here), TiE Inflect 2018 has been designed to focus on the business and human impact of AI. Of course there are tracks on BlockChain, IoT and others and it will be interesting to choose from 200+ speakers as they share how all these emerging technologies are radically transforming every industry including FinTech, MarTech, HealthTech and more. I am looking forward to attending this conference on May 4th & 5th. If you are not already registered, do it now and ping me if you would like to catch up in person.
