Machine Learning
Machine Learning Is Important, But Some AIs Just Want To Have Fun
This video by the French computer programmer Damien Henry is a clever visual demonstration of machine learning – a term coined by the US computer scientist Arthur Samuel (1901-1990) to describe an algorithm that gives computers the ‘ability to learn without being explicitly programmed’. Using several videos recorded from windows during train rides, Henry trained an algorithm …
The Body Is The Missing Link For Truly Intelligent Machines
It’s tempting to think of the mind as a layer that sits on top of more primitive cognitive structures. We experience ourselves as conscious beings, after all, in a way that feels different to the rhythm of our heartbeat or the rumblings of our stomach. If the operations of the brain can be separated out …
To Be Ethical, AI Must Become Explainable. How Do We Get There?
As over-hyped as artificial intelligence is—everyone’s talking about it, few fully understand it, it might leave us all unemployed but also solve all the world’s problems—its list of accomplishments is growing. AI can now write realistic-sounding text, give debating champs a run for their money, diagnose illnesses, and generate fake human faces—among much more. After training …
What Would It Mean For AI To Become Conscious?
As artificial intelligence systems take on more tasks and solve more problems, it’s hard to say which is rising faster: our interest in them or our fear of them. Futurist Ray Kurzweil famously predicted that “By 2029, computers will have emotional intelligence and be convincing as people.” We don’t know how accurate this prediction will …
The AI Revolution Will Be Led By Toasters, Not Droids
Will the intelligent algorithms of the future look like general-purpose robots, as adept at idle banter and reading maps as they are handy in the kitchen? Or will our digital assistants look more like a grab-bag of specialised gadgets – less a single chatty masterchef than a kitchen full of appliances? If an algorithm tries …
The Benefits And Risk Of Artificial Intelligence
WHAT IS AI? From SIRI to self-driving cars, artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing rapidly. While science fiction often portrays AI as robots with human-like characteristics, AI can encompass anything from Google’s search algorithms to IBM’s Watson to autonomous weapons. Artificial intelligence today is properly known as narrow AI (or weak AI), in that it is designed …
The Future Of AI Revenue : Top 10 Use Cases For AI In The Next Decade
Artificial intelligence already impacts many aspects of our daily lives at work, at home, and as we move about. Over the next decade, analyst firm Tractica predicts that annual Global AI enterprise software revenue will grow from $644 million in 2016 to nearly $39 billion by 2025, and services related revenue should reach almost $150 billion. They …
The Seven Deadly Sins Of AI Predictions
Mistaken extrapolations, limited imagination, and other common mistakes that distract us from thinking more productively about the future. We are surrounded by hysteria about the future of artificial intelligence and robotics—hysteria about how powerful they will become, how quickly, and what they will do to jobs. I recently saw a story in MarketWatch that said robots will take …
Dungeons & Dragons, Not Chess & Go : Why AI Needs Roleplay
Everyone had died – not that you’d know it, from how they were laughing about their poor choices and bad rolls of the dice. As a social anthropologist, I study how people understand artificial intelligence (AI) and our efforts towards attaining it; I’m also a life-long fan of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), the inventive fantasy …
Everyone Is Talking About AI—But Do They Mean the Same Thing?
In 2017, artificial intelligence attracted $12 billion of VC investment. We are only beginning to discover the usefulness of AI applications. Amazon recently unveiled a brick-and-mortar grocery store that has successfully supplanted cashiers and checkout lines with computer vision, sensors, and deep learning. Between the investment, the press coverage, and the dramatic innovation, “AI” has …