Artificial Intelligence

Also known to all those hip folks as AI, artificial intelligence despite what you might assume can be traced all the way back to classical philosophers. Ancient Greeks held a series of myths about robots, futuristic inventions that would mimic human thought and action. Granted, we’ve all held these myths, but the Greeks wrote and opined on them, and while the notion of AI as we know it today might have seemed completely nuts to Plato, the thought process was dead on.

In 1956 at a conference in Hanover, New Hampshire at Dartmouth College, a scientist from MIT, Dr. Marvin Minsky, was in attendance. He is famously quoted on lecturing on the question of “artificial intelligence” and how it could remake the future of mankind. The term had not been uttered prior (although we all know how controversial these types of claims are, perhaps it was discussed 8 months prior in Rwanda, who knows) and garnered much interest from Minsky’s peers. Yet, once one dives into AI it becomes quickly apparent that achieving an artificially intelligent being is no small feat. Government funding quickly entered, and then famously dried up between 1974 and 1980, the “AI winter” as it would be known.

Interest then jumped up post 1980, dried up again from 1987 to 1993, and picked up yet again in 1997 when the IBM super-computer Deep Blue became the first computer to beat famed Russian grandmaster chess player, Garry Kasparov. At this point folks could finally put an attribute to AI, something tangible it could do. At its core, AI is an interdisciplinary science that seeks to build machines that are capable of performing tasks that a human currently engages in. AI is thinking humanly, thinking rationally, acting humanly and acting rationally. The first two deal with reasoning and thought processes while the latter two are concerned with behavior.

There is a fundamental algorithm that most AI machines follow, but they are being powered, in concert, via machine and deep learning. If a machine is defined as “narrow AI,” that means it is typically performing a single task at a high level. This might seem on its face to be otherworldly, but these are machines only capable of one task and one task only. More advanced machines, known as “artificial general intelligence,” are like the things you see in movies. These are machines that mimic human thought and behavior and can apply their learned intelligence to solving problems.

But let’s jump out of what AI is and give you some concrete examples. A Google search is AI. As time goes on it gets smarter, more adept at picking up the search terms humans use to look for certain things, and better equipped at matching results to the exact person seeking said subject. This is AI at work. Alexa, Siri and other personal assistants are also excellent examples of AI. If you are asking Alexa to order you 3 jugs of milk, a pound of potatoes, 3 packs of pasta and 200 ounces of cashews every Tuesday, Alexa will remember that and remind you that the order is due the following Tuesday. He/she might also get into suggesting similar foods based on your diet preferences.

The doomsday theorists will have you think AI will eventually eliminate the human race and bask on the riches of Earth. Perhaps, and had you told me a virus would ravage the planet 6 months ago I would have called a psychiatric team to take you in. But AI in all likelihood will simply make our lives easier (it already does). And we need some easiness right about now!