Artificial Intelligence

What is Artificial Intelligence?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages”. Essentially, it is a sub-field of Computer Science where computers do things that you normally would see in humans. For many decades, Artificial Intelligence (commonly abbreviated as AI) was merely an idea in science fiction. Not only does it exist today, but it is an ever-increasing part of our society. Ten years ago if you wanted to know the weather, you either had to turn on the weather channel or read what the forecast said in the daily newspaper. Today, you can literally ask your phone about the weather and it will respond in a humanoid voice. AI is becoming more and more mainstream, and with that comes more speculation about its impact on us and our future.

HAL 9000; A depiction of an AI from 2001: A Space Odyssey

A popular subject of movies is the depiction of a robot uprising, or an AI so smart that it works to undermine humans. This can be seen in many popular movies like WALL-E, Terminator, and 2001: A Space Odyssey to name a few. Over the weekend a couple of my friends and I watched a recently released movie called Ex Machina. In the movie, a programmer for a large software company wins a raffle to visit the CEO’s house to test out an android with artificial intelligence that the CEO had secretly created. The programmer becomes increasingly romantically attached to the android, and after learning that the CEO abuses her and other robots he had created, the programmer and android conspire to escape. The movie ends with the android killing the CEO and betraying the programmer by locking him in a chamber, after it was revealed that the CEO was the good guy all along and the android is actually evil. Because the AI in the android was so advanced, it knew how to manipulate the emotions of the humans it interacted with for its personal gain.

Understandably, there are some people who worry about malevolent robots being a reality in the near future. In his 1950 science fiction book I, Robot, Isaac Asimov outlined the Three Rules of Robotics, which were programmed into the robots in the story. The rules were as follows:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Asimov believed that if every robot followed these three laws, the fears of a dystopian AI-controlled future could be alleviated. Many additional laws have been added on by others throughout the years, and some have even completely written their own versions of the laws. So far, no robot in existence is programmed to follow any laws like the ones written by Asimov, mainly due to the fact that the field of AI is not advanced enough yet to create a robot that can fully understand these laws. Additionally, some argue that because the US military is a big source of funding for AI, it is unlikely the laws will be built into the robots created by them.

Despite some public uneasiness about the future of AI, it is a field that is continuing to advance more quickly than anticipated. Most of the research in AI takes place out of the public eye, but occasionally it will make an appearance in media. In 2011, the supercomputer Watson developed by IBM was featured on Jeopardy. It played against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two of the most successful contestants on the show. The game ended with Watson winning $77,147, Jennings winning $24,000, and Rutter winning $21,600. IBM has many current and planned future uses for Watson, including healthcare, business, and even as a chat bot in toys for children. This is just one example of the developments in AI, and IBM is nowhere near being done developing Watson. 

IBM's Watson

Artificial Intelligence is a promising field of Computer Science with an exciting future, which has captivated the minds of many people, authors and technologists alike.  The past and future developments of AI have the potential to change our civilization forever. Ten years ago, applications like Siri and Cortana were an article of science fiction. Today, they are so commonplace that even children use them. 

What new developments in AI will emerge in the next ten years?

-Erik B.

Works Cited

"Artificial Intelligence." Oxford Dictionary. Web.

Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1950. Print.

Cykocurt. Hal 9000. Digital image. Flickr. Flicker, 23 Feb. 2007. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 

Ex Machina. Perf. Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and Sonoya Mizuno. Universal Studios, 2015.

Taco, Atomic. Watson and Two Other Jeopardy Podiums. Digital image. Flickr. Flickr, 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.