Thursday, September 17, 2015

The search for a thinking machine



Many people believe that computes are on the brink of being able to learn for themselves. Even today computers are beginning to get an understanding of the things around them that a decade ago could never have been imagined. The biggest hurdle that computing must overcome to be able to fully realize the potential of artificial intelligence, is the ability for the computer to look at an object or a person and have a clear understanding of what it is looking at. The human brain is able to process an image hundreds of times a second and get a clear understanding of what it sees.

This type of technology could have a major impact on the future of mankind because as computers are able to learn more they will be able to do, more and more, tasks that humans are not able to do as reliably. This technology is growing very rapidly in the near future could allow almost every job the ability to be done more efficiently and faster by a computer that is running artificial intelligence. An example of this type of artificial intelligence was shown back in 2011 when the IBM Watson computer was able to beat many of the best jeopardy players of all time by using AI (Artificial Intelligence). Many other services are also using different levels of artificial intelligence today. In our daily lives for example the way that google presents relevant ads to the user based on the things that they have looked at in the past and the links that they have clicked on. Amazon is also using a similar technology in the way that is able to make recommendations on its home page to shoppers (Metz).

Another great example of the use of this technology is the robot Jibo that is being created by an MIT professor. Jibo would help make everyone’s life a little bit easier by having a robot in their house that is able to recognize a person and give them pertinent information about the things that they need to get done that day, and notifications such as emails (Jibo). This type of robot is also able to make everyone’s life easier because it would allow people to have more free time in there day to get things done. Another example of artificial intelligence in everyday life would be Siri in the iPhone because it allows the user to input data and come up with a relevant answer very quickly. Artificial intelligence is no longer a fantasy that people read about in fiction books but instead a tangible and useful tool for the present.           

Works Cited

"Jibo, The World's First Family Robot." JIBO. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
Metz, Cade. "Now Anyone Can Tap the AI Behind Amazon’s Recommendations." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 09 Apr. 2015. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
Wakefield, Jane. "The Search for a Thinking Machine - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., 17 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.


1 comment:

  1. Computers being able to learn to much could also be a possibility. First off, computer operated machinery will take more jobs away from people. Computers will overrun the manufacturing industry. I discussed in my blog that the user is able to design products through the use of 3D software. I believe this is a more efficient way of production as opposed to simulations and codes processed by "thinking computers." Creativity is still alive and needed in today's society by other people. Also, eluding to IBM releasing a machine that could beat very intelligent people in jeopardy, this is more alarming than amazing. This opens doors for radical ideas that are only portrayed in the movies. Sure it is a step in the right direction for the human race, but hopefully, humans do not get sold short when these "robots" become more prevalent.

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