How AI is Changing Our World

In the 1991 movie Terminator 2: Judgement Day, John Connor, a 10-year-old juvenile delinquent and his mother Sarah, are all that stands between humankind and total annihilation. They have the following illuminating conversation with the Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. John Connor: Can you learn stuff you haven't been programmed with so you could be... you know, more human? And not such a dork all the time? The Terminator: My CPU is a neural-net processor; a learning computer. But Skynet presets the switch to read-only when we're sent out alone. Sarah Connor: Doesn't want you doing too much thinking, huh? The Terminator: No

In 2017, Artificial Intelligence or AI applications are more pervasive than ever before and increasingly convey the semblance of ‘thinking’. From 1950, when Alan Turing created the “Turing Test” that ascertains whether a computer has actual intelligence, to Google’s AI algorithm, AlphaGo, that last year beat a professional player at the Chinese board game Go, AI has come a long way.  In a lecture he gave a few years ago, Stephen Hawking, the world renowned theoretical physicist had this to say: “I believe there is no deep difference between what can be achieved by a biological brain and what can be achieved by a computer. It therefore follows that computers can, in theory, emulate human intelligence — and exceed it.” As our AI tools and skills advance, we’re seeing more and more AI applications challenging human intelligence. AI is being used in a diverse range of industries, from banking, insurance and marketing to medicine and aviation. AI applications such as chatbots, self-driving cars, facial recognition, algorithmic trading and medical diagnosis are changing significant aspects of our industries as well as our daily lives. Data is the fuel of any AI and as more data becomes publicly available and accessible, the more we can expect useful AI applications that not only make our tasks easier but solve fundamental economic and societal challenges. Machine learning is a subset of AI and involves computers learning from data and information. The ‘learning’ part is really remarkable because it means that the algorithms don’t have to be human-programmed but can alter and enhance on their own. In today’s blog I’d like to share 4 of my favorite, fun, online machine learning experiments that brilliantly demonstrate just a small slice of what machine learning is capable of. Just click on the images below.

While the above examples might appear innocuous, the underlying science is transforming industries and societies in new and exciting ways. We think the Terminator would approve. Contact Ixio Analytics to learn more about our machine learning capabilities.