You have probably heard all kinds of phrases about AI, ranging from “AI is the next big step for humanity” to “Beware, AI will eradicate the entire human race!” And of course, it is important to take both the good as well as the bad into account. This post is all about the past, present, and future of our wonderful inventions.
Let’s start with the past. The term “Artificial Intelligence” was first coined in 1956 at Dartmouth College, but the idea of artificial intelligence has been around since the 1940s. A paper by Alan Turning, one of the breakers of the Axis powers’ enigma machine code, written in 1950, discussed how to make and test intelligent machines (AI). Unfortunately, there were no good enough, or cheap enough, computers to test out his theories and start the creation of AI. In 1955, the first AI (Logic Theorist) was built, and presented to the world at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, 1956. The Logic Theorist proved that AI was possible, but there was not much interest in AI, until the government decided to fund AI projects in the 1960s. This funding was later canceled in the 1970s, but in the 1980s people found that AI could be used for business as well as science. In business AI was used to predict stock changes and solve problems. Soon after, robotics entered factories, which led to a backlash against AI, as people were afraid to be replaced by robots.
Now, AI has effectively become the fourth industrial revolution, after mechanical production, the introduction of electricity, and automation. We see dozens of AI-based companies sprouting up across the globe, connecting with multiple industries to solve long-standing problems. There are two main types of learning with AI: supervised learning and unsupervised learning. In supervised learning, the machine is given data labeled with right and wrong answers to be able to train on, and there are no such labels with unsupervised learning. As of now, supervised learning has been far more used and developed than unsupervised learning, which is seen as the way to go for the future.
Something you may have heard about AI is its relation with the issue of privacy. “They’re after our data! Keep your privacy settings on!” are common phrases we hear so that AI technology cannot decipher our little actions and habits. Several companies have been found to keep track of such things in order to show us exactly what we want to see to keep us hooked. As of now, there are few laws in the US restricting AI, though Europe has begun to crack down on this issue, putting restrictions on autonomous vehicles coming to market.
In the end, with new advancements in technology, we must keep in mind that with progress should also come caution that it will not be used for the wrong reasons. The future is yet to come, so it’s important to advance in technology and to always be cautious.
Note: If you would like to learn more about the future of AI, you can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nt3edWLgIg&list=PLe4z4opkfdqpKO5Q1fN44Dhkj7nx3WFiH&index=14&app=desktop
Post By: Roshni P. M. and Hannah W.
Photo Credits: Possessed Photography, Unsplash, https://unsplash.com/photos/zbLW0FG8XU8
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