6 Weird Facts About AI & Robots
Including AI Passports & Robot Taxes
What was nothing more than science fiction yesterday quickly becomes today’s reality. With 77% of the devices, we use every day have one or another form of AI, Artificial Intelligence is clearly not a futuristic concept anymore. Over the last two decades, the number of AI startups grew 14 times and the investment in AI startups grew 6 times.
With such a rise in the interest and continuous developments of AI have brought the industry to an absolutely new level. According to TechJury (2020), AI will cause the growth of the global GDP by $15.7 trillion by 2030.
With such significant growth in the developments and industry investments, AI and Robotics industry now have more and more innovations. Here is the list of the top 6 of the weirdest facts around AI and Robotics.
AI Already Have Nationalities and Passports
Yes. You did not read it wrong. For instance, in 2017 Saudi Arabia was the first nation that granted citizenship to a humanoid robot — Sophia. Here is a very interesting interview with Sophia:
Robots Might Need To Pay Taxes Too
Firstly suggested in South Korea In 2017, robot tax is still of the most debatable subjects in the technology industry. Some people say that ‘taxing robots is as intelligent as taxing a software’, others claim that there should be clearer regulation of robots and AI.
Wall Street Journal (2020) suggested an interesting example that illustrates the idea behind putting taxation commitment (regulation) on robots:
“In all likelihood, your co-workers pay taxes. But what happens if your boss replaces them with sophisticated software or dexterous machines — ones that perform the same tasks for less money (at least over the long run) and contribute nothing in payroll taxes?”
Bill Gates argue that robot tax could slow down “the speed of automation” allowing society to cope and adapt to the new reality. Apart from this argument, robot taxes can help prevent tax loopholes and create new jobs in green energy, healthcare and education.
On another hand, there is an interesting and thought-provoking notion that argues against robot taxes. These points are not focused on the benefits of robots tax, but rather on the definition side. For instance:
Define ‘Robot’
What seems to be easy at the first sight is actually deeper and harder than you think. The definition of a robot is very broad. It can cover almost all technology with automation elements like a vending machine or a tractor.
Define When a Job is Actually Automated by a Robot
There is a certain gap in understanding what kind of robots should be taxed and what kind of automated jobs are we talking about.
Apart from the definition challenge, there is also an opinion that robot tax might damage the innovation spirit. Some people claim that this additional tax might cause many companies to reduce their willingness to invest in the newest tech.
AI Can Actually Read Your Mind
No, I’m not talking about Pinterest personalized feed or eBay visual-based shopping. This is about an actual mind reading. Robotics specialists developed a new technique that can scan your brain with an FMRI scanner or an electroencephalogram (EEG) cap and create a real image of your thoughts. This AI system will compose an image it got from your brain and compare it to other pictures that it will receive from volunteers.
Above is only one methodology that is designed to recreate the images people’s brain is getting on the computer. Another technique to read mind was designed to not only read the thoughts of people but also to convert them into sentences with the use of brain signal-reading electrodes and Machine Learning.
Pet-Robots
Imagine that in as soon as in 5 years, pet-bots will be one of the most popular trends. Pet-bots are just like the real pets but without need for 5 am morning walks and non-stop vacuuming. Despite acting just like the real animals, they don’t need to be fed, cleaned, checked at the vets, walked, etc. Some robotic pets are covered with sensors, which identify when they are being touched and behave accordingly. Some of them even recognize voice commands and respond to them.
Would you ever consider a dog-bot instead of a real one? Write your thoughts in the comments and let’s discuss! ‘
Most AI Bots Are Female
According to Creative Strategies, 97% of mobile users are already using AI-powered voice assistants with 40% of people using the voice search function at a minimum of once per day. Their study also is divided into brands: only 2% of iPhone owners have never used Siri and 4% of Android users have never tried OK Google.
Apart from this study, the statistics from TechJury (2020) predict that AI-powered voice assistants will reach 8 billion by 2023. But imagine, that from these 8 billion voice assistants, most AI is female. Think about it: Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant or even listen to the AI-powered voice assistant of your health centre— most likely it will be female as well. Reason?
According to studies, both males and females are more attracted to a woman’s voice.
“It’s much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that everyone likes,” the Stanford communications professor Clifford Nass, told CNN in 2011. (Nass died in 2013.) “It’s a well-established phenomenon that the human brain is developed to like female voices.” (The Atlantic, 2016).
However, when you ask Siri a question:
‘Siri, are you female or male?’
she will reply: ‘I don’t have a gender’.
‘Siri, why do you have a female voice?’
she will reply: ‘Unfortunately, this is the only voice that I have at the moment’.
For years, the companies who designed these voice assistant have been heavily criticized for using female names and voices, as it raises an issue with the gender bias in technology.
AI News Reporters
The example of automated journalism can be seen of what the Washington Post has done during the Rio Olympics in 2016.
The Washington Post wanted AI to report the key happenings during this event in 2016. The name of their AI writer was Heliograf and it was created to generate updates to the readers. Based on the data from different sources, Heliograf was able to create new data and customize it according to user requests. In total this tool has made more than 850 stories.
Here is a sports article that was written by Heliograf:
Even though many of these facts might seem futuristic at some point, they are not only real but also in the forthcoming years, it will become a new norm.
