How_It_Works_Issue_99_2017

DID YOU KNOW? A neural network called MarI/O was created specifically to beat the tricky levels of Super Mario World
due to the fact that as we march from generalpurpose
AI towards human level intelligence,
we’ll need more and more powerful computers;
and we’ve yet to invent something that can rival
the processing power of the human brain.
But we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t rise to
the challenge, and scientists are currently
working on new computers that have the
potential to be extremely powerful. These are
known as quantum computers, and they take
advantage of nature’s ‘spooky’ properties to
work in amazing ways. The speed at which they
can make calculations is mind-blowing.
A good way to compare a normal computer
with a quantum computer is to imagine the
Building a sentence
With the phonemes arranged, the software
constructs the sentence. To make the most
accurate guess it arranges the words like links
in a chain, and uses statistical analysis to work
out the most probable word sequence.
Call
40%
Me
A
How smart virtual
assistants use AI to
make our lives that
little bit easier
centre of a maze. When the task is to escape, a
normal computer will try each path one at a
time, until it follows the right route and escapes.
But a quantum computer can search every path
at the same time. This means it is much quicker
and much more powerful, and could be the key
to unlocking an equivalent, or greater, power
than the human brain when coupled with a
sophisticated artificial intelligence. We can only
wonder what awaits us on the outside of the
quantum computing maze; we may achieve
human level intelligence, or perhaps even
greater. We may even create a super intelligence,
one that surpasses our own cognitive abilities.
This probably sounds both exciting and
Taxi
50%
Artificial
assistants
Assigning meaning
This is where the learning part comes in.
Depending on the context, there may be
more than one way of interpreting the
sentence. If the programme
misinterprets your request it will store
the data so it can learn from its mistakes.
Call me
“a taxi”
OR
Call a
taxi for
me
Quick, Draw!
Using the power of neural networks and
machine learning, coders and designers have
built a heap of creative programmes for
Google’s AI-based web experiments, including
one programme that can perform an
improvised duet on the piano alongside a
human player! But perhaps the most fun of
them all is the Quick, Draw! programme, which
is able to correctly identify even the most
obscure of doodles.
When playing the game, you’re given just 20
seconds to draw an object (given in writing),
then the neural network does its best to
determine what it is just from your hastily
drawn lines and squiggles. For us, identifying
images is a relatively easy task, but the same
cannot be said for a computer. Five different
people may draw a rhinoceros five different
ways, so Quick, Draw! must be taught to
recognise them all. It achieves this by training
itself using a collection of catalogued doodles,
allowing it to recognise features that we’ll
always include in a certain drawing.
You can join the
fun and play
Quick, Draw! at
quickdraw.
withgoogle.
com
© WIKI/ Joe Mabel/ Chemical Heritage Foundation; Google; Thinkstock
Radio waves
The best virtual
assistants are equipped
with voice recognition
software. This uses an
audio capture device to
record the sound waves
of your speech. This is
then sent to the cloud,
where the waves are
deconstructed into
chunks of phonemes.
Distance:
4km
Distance:
5km
Calling a cab
Once the programme is
confident of what you’re
requesting, it can begin to
search the broader network.
Using keywords in your
request the search can be
tailored. The assistant can
then complete the request.
HIW Taxi co. is
on its way
Call me a taxi
please
“We’ve yet to invent
something that can
rival the processing power
of the human brain”
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