Artificial Intelligence: On a Quest to Reach the Human-level
“To create an artificial being has been the dream of man since the birth of science. Not merely the beginning of the modern age when our forbearers astonished the world with the first thinking machines; primitive monsters that could play chess.”
These lines from Steven Spielberg’s film ─ A.I. Artificial Intelligence resonates with our constant endeavour to elevate machines to the human level.
What makes humans unique compared to machines?
The human brain is a complex and fascinating blend of extraordinary engineering, emotional and cognitive intelligence. It has unexplored depths to its capabilities and utilization. You could say the ‘spirit’ in the ethereal and emotional sense makes us unique. Perhaps we are special because of our inherent instinct, perception, knowledge, emotional and cognitive intelligence to make sense of our surroundings and learn things accordingly. No matter how much research you do on certain things in life, there will still be a few elements far beyond our understanding, and the human mind is one of them.
To think machines can be like us in all aspects seems like a far stretched thought for now. However, the human mind has achieved remarkable feats in inventing technology for a better and more intelligent lifestyle. Who knows, we might be able to build a mecha in the future. Of course, it will be a tedious task but enthralling. Here’s an exciting video to give us an idea of what the future may hold.
What is AI?
AI refers to intelligent machines that are an amalgam of computer science and engineering. AI came into existence when computers were invented. It was born with the idea that human thought can be mechanized.
From being a figment of the science-fiction imagination, AI has become an integral part of technology and has been implemented across various fields such as robotics, manufacturing, sports, healthcare, education, finance, gaming, and entertainment.
A few decades ago, machines were rather primitive, programmed to answer specific questions. They could not put pieces of information together or make decisions. With time, we applied Artificial Intelligence to provide the machines with certain human traits such as reasoning, perception, problem-solving, learning, and planning. It enabled devices to analyse patterns from massive data, learn from experience, and perform human-like tasks. To imitate human intelligence, we gave machines the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed.
AI can be classified as Applied AI and General AI (AGI). The latter is not easy to create as imbibing machines with a moral conscience, and common sense is complex. On the other hand, AGI is the most longed-for goal and, if accomplished, will be capable of executing tasks just like humans or perhaps even outsmarting us. Google’s DeepMind company has recently claimed to have achieved a significant AGI milestone — Impala. It is an algorithm capable of learning 30 exigent tasks requiring knowledge application, memory, and navigation.
Applied AI, on the other hand, has become synonymous with our lives, and a few striking everyday examples are as follows:
- Google Maps: A needed respite to those who want to explore new places or reach a destination at the earliest. Google’s self-learning algorithms analyse the traffic movement, user-reported construction and accidents to suggest you the fastest route. It has announced a Visual Positioning System that will use your phone’s camera and extensive data to identify your surroundings and display pop-ups highlighting nearby restaurants, theatres, banks, businesses etc., in real-time. We don’t know yet when this feature will be available, though.
- Facebook: How is it possible for Facebook to highlight friends in the picture that you upload to tag them? Facebook uses an intelligent facial recognition AI to do so. This software uses artificial neural networks and machine learning algorithms to imitate the human brain.
- Online shopping apps: When you search for an item in online shopping apps such as Amazon, the app immediately returns a list of products related to your search. It also recommends products to you based on your purchases and inquiries. Amazon uses artificial neural networks to detect relevant products and learn from the user’s past and recent search patterns to recommend products accordingly.
- Voice search and speech recognition: Voice-to-text has become a common attribute in smartphones. You have to tap a button or say OK Google for the phone to transcribe your command. Voice search paved the way for intelligent personal assistants such as Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, and Cortana. These assistants use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to perform internet searches, answer your questions, set alarms, make calls, etc.
- Autonomous cars: Self-driving cars are a boon to those who fret at the thought of parallel parking, want to manage their travelling time usefully or with physical difficulties. Companies like Bosch develop smart AI automated vehicle technology to analyse the parking locations, available spots, and time when the car is on the move. Tesla is manufacturing electric cars with the hardware to support autonomous driving. The necessary software updates to fully activate this feature is currently in progress. When brought to fruition, the human driver will still be able to take control when necessary.
- Fraud prevention: The payment gateways apply AI to detect the type of fraudulent transactions. It is also used to cut the number of legitimate transactions identified as fraud.
Is AI a boon or bane?
Will AI be a threat to our existence? After having read the everyday examples, you may not feel so. Everything in this world has two sides to it. It is up to us to wisely use the resources without jeopardizing nature and the human race.
AI is a boon if you program it to do something beneficial. For example, in a recent campaign launched by Samsung, we see how AI is helping patients suffering from motor neuron disease (MND) communicate with their family. Samsung’s Bixby team is developing the first personalized AI voice assistant for MND patients to make their voice live forever.
AI is a bane if you program it to do something evil. For example, these days, AI is also used to create autonomous weapons. Imagine what will happen if somebody programs the weapons to do something sinister, leading to mass casualties — kind of like the Terminator series. Scary, isn’t it?
Are we becoming too dependent on machines, thereby limiting our mental capacities? About two decades ago, we didn’t have mobile phones or social networking sites. We used to memorize the numbers or important events, and as a backup, wrote them down in a diary or something. Today, we save the details on smart devices and seldom rely on our memory. As a result, we feel helpless, cut-off from the world when we lose our phones or other gadgets. Also, how many of us can do math quickly without reaching out to the calculator. You may argue that not all are good at math, and so they use calculators. Fair enough, nothing wrong with using it. But many of us who are relatively good at math don’t use our brains because we have a device in place to do it. These are some basic examples that make us ponder on our dependency on machines.
Concluding Thoughts
There will be continual advancements in technology. Therefore, we must consciously avoid depending on machines for everything. It is a bit scary to think of machines being like us in the future. However, if they do reach the human level, it will be important not to let them intrude on humanity.
As Bart Selman, an AI researcher at Cornell University, rightly told the Business Insider:
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed reading it, please click the clap button 👏 and share it with others.
This is me on Linkedin.
