In 1956, John McCarthy – an American PhD graduate in mathematics from Princeton University – coined the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI). Defined as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”, McCarthy established the foundations of AI today.
Technology moves quickly and in the last 63 years we have built heavily upon those foundations. The autocorrect this blog relied heavily upon, Spotify’s discover elements, search engine results and Netflix’s tailored suggestions are all AI based. How else would we determine what to watch next after finishing the latest season of Stranger Things? (It’s Mindhunter, no need for AI on this one.) This intelligence, unquestionably useful and life improving, is limited to a set of functions and is known as ‘narrow AI’. Essentially all AI currently in existence is narrow AI.
However, progress never halts and we endeavour to build AI capable of human-level intelligence. This is known as ‘General AI’ and the principle concept is: AI would be capable of performing any intellectual task that a human being could. Imagine omni-available health care advice that is tailored to your mental and physical wellbeing. Imagine instantaneous, seamless translation during conversations on visits to foreign lands. Imagine truly driverless cars, automated cooking or home cleaning.
Although we haven’t yet achieved this, our trusty voice assistants are leading the way. According to research carried out by Katja Grace in 2017; some experts believe there is a 50-50 chance of AI outperforming us mere humans in all tasks within 45 years. For the moment their features are limited but as we continue to “teach” them via usage athend technology improves, their potential grows. Perhaps one day, even to Artificial Super Intelligence (intelligence greater than that of humans), think HAL 9000 and Terminator.
Human interaction with AI has become a key component of our design approach here at RHA and we expect that to continue in the coming years. We may not need to fear Skynet just yet but SkyKnit is very much present today – click the link, there’s no terminators, we promise!
Image by Joannastar via AI Weirdness
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We used advanced algorithms and AI to compile an awesome playlist for you on Spotify!*
*Okay, it wasn't an algorithm or AI, it was me but it's still awesome.
ng just returned from consumer electronics trade show IFA, we asked ourselves; is a brighter, better future really within sight or is it all an artificial stitch-up?