How will bots make an impact on our lives?
“Can a machine think?”. Ever since mathematician Alan Turing (1912–1954) raised that question, people have been obsessed with creating an artificial intelligence (A.I) smart enough to actually do a human’s work. Alan even predicted that by the 2000s the machine would think like a human being.
His prediction would have come true if the technological speed had complied to Moore’s law (1995), which indicated that the technology growth rate doubled every 2 years. However, despite the fact that the A.I is here and becoming more and more intertwining with people’s lives, I must admit that I have yet seen anything impressive. It’s understandable that in order to reach the technological level in i,Robot, it is a long, rough and bumpy road. And every time I saw a chatbot talking gibberish or failing to get a joke, I would say “Way to go guys! Keep up the good work because the goal is still far ahead!”.
So what’s the big deal about building bots? Why is it so hard to build one?
Turing and his ideology shaped our mindset ever since
There exists a global annual competition in his name for the cause of finding the most human like bot. Each bot will have a brief chit chat time with the judges in attempt to fool them that it is a human. The contest’s purpose is to determine how natural the conversations are between a human and a machine.
Looking at the popularity of the test and the topic itself, it is visible that chatbots have taken all the spotlights and often regarded by the media as the milestones of the artificial intelligence. However, the experts disagree as there are many other greater things that bots can do. Chatbots can only imitate and manage conversations with humans well, but they are not that excellent when being involved with more complex tasks.
You can do more with bots than just talking
For instance, I would like you to meet Baxter, the first watch-and-learn robot in the world. Baxter has moved us a greater step forward toward Turing’s the true “thinking” computer. Right now Baxter is not that really good in socializing with us, but it simply gets the job done, whether putting parts into one piece without rest or simply making coffee for hundreds of customers.
Furthermore, Turing’s intention wasn’t about imitating humans, but rather about finding out if bots can actually have cognitive thinking for themselves that is indistinguishable from humans. We has not reached that threshold… yet. Right now, researchers have been trying to develop new variants that are not about holding a conversation. And they have succeeded: Be it from making music, writing poems, to driving cars and managing schedules. Bots now can be super helpful to our daily lives in many ways.
Will bots replace us at our office?
You don’t need to pack up and go home yet, because the facts do not indicate a yes to the question above. Robots in the near future are not able to perform complex tasks such as persuasion, negotiation or generation of creative and new ideas in the daily problem solving process. Therefore, humans will still hold a firm grip on the managerial job sector requiring critical thinking, emotional intelligence and social skills. However, jobs that require you doing monotonous works in an enclosed space with little creativity, chances are you have to prepare yourself.
We are all aware of the frustration when our computers doesn’t work. Even the most all-powerful computer cannot live its life without its human support team. People will always have to be there when unexpected things happen. Software needs updates and hardware needs maintenance. As a result, this will be a positive motivation for people to equip themselves with the right knowledge and skill sets if they want to be safe.
In short, we should not make ourselves a modern version of Luddites. Instead we can prepare and welcome the inevitable trend that will make our lives robotastic!
