How Far Can We Take AI

August 30th, 2012

For those of you who are not aware of AI, it is the common term for artificial intelligence. Now although some humans appear to have a distinct lack of intelligence (based on some of the silly things we tend to do), computers and dare is say it robots, are becoming increasingly intelligent. It boggles the mind to imagine how scientists have managed to configure electronics to do so many functions, simultaneously, in just a split second, but the truth of the matter is that whether we can fully understand it or not, computers are now being designed to problem solve and learn. AI could be used for so many interesting and useful things in the future, from helping as an IT service in London to being a flight attendant across the world.

Before we continue, I would like to point out that this is not a joke, and although it sounds like something from an 80’s Sci-Fi film, it is not. The main stopping point up until now has been teaching machines to understand and relate directly to human experience. In the beginning, computers were designed as simple calculators and code readers which could understand a signal and respond to it in the appropriate manner. They have become so advanced at reading, understanding, and responding to physical and electronic stimuli, that the only thing preventing machines from gaining a true ability to ’think' for themselves is that they are currently unable to relate to the world in a way which would allow them to make decisions on such an array of circumstances.

Right now, there are some machines that have been developed which have AI in certain niche situations, and they are able to adapt and learn behaviour based on repeat actions. This is limited to specialist areas, but it will not be long before scientists are able to combine knowledge of many different stimuli response to create one machine that can effectively learn from experience on a wide platform. For some people this is a little worrying, whilst for many others it is extremely exciting. Whatever your opinion is on the matter, there is no doubting that in less time than we all imagine computers and robots will be able to comprehend and react to everyday situations, on a large scale. This would mean that they could effectively be used for everyday tasks and functions as seen on so many films in the past.

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