Artificial Intelligence: Building Smarter Machines
COMPUTERS WITH LEGS AND WINGS For years artificial intelligence has been quietly developing behind the scenes But recent advances in weak AI and robotics are bringing it more and more into the public eye To some the term robots conjures up images of shiny metal figures lumbering stiffly around a room The reality is far more diverse Robots come in all shapes sizes and materials Some look like humans or animals while others have no resemblance to living things Their styles range from the cute to the awesome to the seriously menacing It isn’t hard to guess what the robot BigDog developed by the company Boston Dynamics now owned by Google is made to resemble With four legs a computer to control it sensors to explore its environment and an engine to power it BigDog was designed to carry heavy equipment for In a rescue drill undertaken by the Russian Emergencies Ministry in 2016 a drone drops a life vest to a struggling swimmer Rescue agencies use drones and robots in a variety of emergency situations especially when conditions might be perilous for human responders 10 Artificial Intelligence
soldiers Weighing a hefty 240 pounds 109 kilograms and standing 3 feet 0 9 meters high BigDog can run 4 miles 6 4 kilometers per hour climb stairs carry 340-pound 154 kg loads and push forward through water mud and snow In contrast to BigDog some robots are tiny and delicate Patterned after insects they have wings and can fly The robots function like drones remotely controlled unmanned aerial vehicles They can infiltrate the rubble of collapsed buildings using sensors to identify carbon dioxide from a survivor’s breath or the warmth generated by a living body Instantly the robots can radio the person’s location to rescue squads Designers imagine swarms of these insect-like robots released into the ruins of a city after a major earthquake They would save workers precious minutes or hours in the race to free survivors from a wreckage In the performance of their carefully defined duties BigDog and the swarms of flying rescue robots might almost seem to be aware of what they are doing But they are not Complicated algorithms sets of mathematical rules programmed into their software guide their actions ANDROID DICK Even more impressive than running and flying robots are robots that are programmed to converse with humans For example Android Dick An android is a robot that takes a human form US sculptor and roboticist David Hanson created the robot to look like the famous US science fiction writer Philip K Dick who died in 1982 Hanson uploaded Dick’s novels stories and conversations with reporters and other writers into the robot’s software Supplied with this data the robot easily replied to questions the real Dick had answered when he was alive By analyzing combinations of sounds and words and matching them with meanings from its database the robot could frame responses to other questions as well Some of its statements were so convincing that in 2013 a reporter from the TV series Nova asked Android Dick the most basic question of all Was it really able to think Dawn of a New Age 11
A Russian television reporter interviews Android Dick at the robot’s debut at the NextFest technology exhibition in Chicago in 2005 Programmed with information from the late science fiction author Philip K Dick’s books and other writings the android can convincingly carry on conversations It gives answers and observations like those the real Dick might have given when he was alive The best way I can respond to that is to say that everything humans animals and robots do is programmed to a degree replied the android As technology improves it is anticipated that I will be able to integrate new words that I hear online and in real time I may not get everything right say the wrong thing and sometimes may not know what to say but everyday I make progress Pretty remarkable huh 12 Artificial Intelligence
AN ALIEN INTELLIGENCE Some experts doubt that machines will ever replicate all the complex processes that go on in the human brain This does not mean that machines will lack intelligence only that they will have an alien or different type of intelligence Although a machine may sort through thousands of documents in nanoseconds accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously and solve problems that would stump the smartest human it may not be able to experience love or appreciate a sunset It may be able to analyze what makes a joke funny use an algorithm to construct its own joke and even emit a synthetic chuckle But would the machine experience the delight that humor brings to humans Would it be able to express and understand courage honor or compassion Questions abound Is it possible to program AI with a sense of right and wrong Will sentient aware thinking and feeling machines be part of our future Can artificial intelligence be used to solve the world’s pressing problems and make life better for everyone Was Ken Jennings correctly predicting the future when he called computers our overlords Entertainment though it was Watson’s Jeopardy appearance brought the issue of artificial intelligence more prominently into the public awareness where it is likely to remain Dawn of a New Age 13
