How_It_Works_Issue_99_2017

DID YOU KNOW? NASA’S Curiosity Mars Rover is equipped with a narrow AI that allows it to choose its own rock samples
1990
Scientist Rodney Brooks is
inspired by advances in
neuroscience, and
presents the potential
benefits of building
artificial neural networks.
1997
An IBM-built machine,
named Deep Blue, defeats
world chess champion
Garry Kasparov. For some,
Deep Blue’s ability to act
strategically and evaluate
up to 200 million
positions a second
showed the true power
of AI. For others, the
task still lay ahead, as
Deep Blue had merely
shown a computer’s
effectiveness at
handling a very
specialised task.
2008
Google’s voice recognition
software utilises artificial
neural networks to lift its
accuracy to over 80 per cent.
2011
An IBM machine makes
history once again, as
Watson defeats its human
competitors on the US quiz
show Jeopardy. This feat is a
significant milestone for AI
and one much harder
than programming a
computer to win at
chess. In order to
answer riddles and
complex questions,
Watson is designed
using neural networks
and extensively trained to
recognise patterns.
daunting, but we shouldn’t be as nervous about
this possible future as many are – permitting, of
course, that we progress sensibly.
A super artiicial intelligence won’t pose a
danger to us by itself; at least, not in the way we
think it will. In the many apocalyptic scenarios
shown in iction, the AI thinks like us, and
sometimes even feels like us. They share our
ambitions and quests for freedom and
dominance. But in reality, this wouldn’t be the
case. A computer’s mind works completely
diferently to yours and mine, and that would be
true even for a particularly clever artiicial brain.
It’s easy to imagine that whatever is the
smartest organism will want to climb to the top
of the food chain, especially if we think about
how we got here. But computers aren’t products
of evolution, and that means they’ll have little in
common with us. All of our wants and needs
come from our genetic blueprint, and fortunately
for us (and maybe for the machines too) they will
be free from these desires. This might be
confusing to consider; after all, it’s very hard to
imagine something outside of our own
perspective. But a computer will only exist to
serve its programming, and that will be
whatever it is that we command it to be. So that’s
one aspect we don’t need to worry about.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that we’re
completely in the clear. Say we’re able to one day
create a super intelligence, and we command it
to help us terraform Mars into a suitable home. It
may create solutions that would have taken us
centuries to generate by ourselves, and it could
help us make our dream a reality. But it may also
decide that the best way to terraform Mars is to
take Earth’s atmosphere and resources and
transport them there. The intelligence would be
doing as commanded, but it would be to our
detriment. Ensuring that it correctly
understands what we’re asking may well be the
diference between humanity reaching the stars
and facing extinction.
The second threat of AI is more immediate,
and that’s using its power to beat a diferent
challenge: cracking code. If an able intelligence
falls into the wrong hands, it could be trained to
break through all sorts of password-protected
programmes. So this too is something we have to
be very careful of. But in spite of these potential
problems, artiicial intelligence could well
transform our lives for the better.
“In science fiction, AI thinks, and
sometimes even feels, like us”
OTHER CLEVER ROBOTS
2014
A programme called Eugene
Goostman successfully
passes a variation of the
Turing test, a measure of
machine ‘intelligence’.
2016
Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo is
victorious over Go grandmaster
Lee Sedol. Unlike IBM’s Deep
Blue, AlphaGo could not
employ a ‘brute force’
approach, where every
possible move is
programmed into the
computer. Instead, the
programme makes use
of machine learning to
practice over millions
of games until it learns
its own winning strategy.
Cosmo
This little companion is full
of character and uses AI to
enrich his personality. He
can interact with his
surroundings, play games
and throw tantrums, all
thanks to robotics and
machine learning.
Sphero BB-8 Droid
Although not quite at the level of the droid found in a
galaxy far, far away, Sphero’s BB-8 is a clever roller.
Primarily app controlled, it’s able to act autonomously
and evolve its personality as it interacts with you.
NAO
This small humanoid
robot stands at only
58cm tall, but is designed
as a cute and friendly
companion. And just like
it’s larger humanoid
cousins, it can walk and
sense its surroundings.
© NASA, Honda Robotics; SoftBank Robotics; WIKI/ Jahooly
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