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32 SCIENCE & TECH what is AI? Robin Jacob, Contributor From driving our cars to securing our homes, artificial intelligence has become an integral part of modern society. If we are trusting it with our lives, should we be concerned of its capabilities? Tech mogul Elon Musk stated that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a greater threat to humanity than North Korea. AI seems to be all the rage these days within tech communities, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of people outside those communities have limited information about it--odds are the information that they do have originated from the opinion of someone in a pseudo-scientific YouTube video. AI gets bad publicity because when it is mentioned in the media, the info tends to come from unreliable sources. So, instead of referencing your information from a sci-fi video game you played last night, open your mind for the next 5 minutes. Prepared to be educated, perplexed, and inspired. When learning something new, it’s best to build from the ground up, starting with the basics. What exactly is Artificial Intelligence? Professor Richard Estrada, who teaches a course on artificial intelligence at UTSC, offers his elucidation: “Artificial Intelligence is a very important area of research and application in computer science that deals with the task of creating computer systems that are able to receive input from their environment and carry out actions that will successfully solve a specific task, based on their input.” Seems simple enough - they’re created by humans for humans to help us with tasks. Labelled as “Intelligent Machines”, they have the ability to learn and apply new information on their own. It’s almost as if it has some element of magic to it. How is something like that even created? At their cores, AI systems are just “clever applications of statistics and math,” says professor Estrada; essentially, programmed systems based off of mathematics and statistics that receive external input from their environment to complete tasks that they are assigned to do. So, now that we know a bit of what it is, what are some of the pros and cons of AI? With AI the sky is truly the limit. Accessing the benefits and using AI is as easy as using your smartphone. The computational power and processing power AI brings has revolutionized several industries. In finance, AI can measure thousands of unseen variables to predict stock price fluctuation every second and suggest safe investing options. In the field of medicine, it can detect and diagnose diseases and prevent deadly epidemics from occurring. In sport, there are currently developers working on ways to have intelligent machines assist with coaching during games and suggest high-potential scoring options for teams. There are countless other applications for AI across other disciplines. Although they have high capacity to help humans and improve our lives, there are cons to the artificial system. Artificial intelligence has developed well enough to take over certain tasks that humans do, according to Professor Estrada. It’s important to keep in mind that just as certain jobs have become obsolete over the past decade, the AI itself could figure out a way to complete them more efficiently. Imagine how students will be taught in the future or what the workforce will look like. There is still one important question left to answer: can a piece of AI advance enough to become more powerful than humans and rule the world? Short answer, the possibility is there; however, AI will only destroy if we tell it to do so. Professor Estrada says, “Remember that AI is to a large degree a clever application of statistics and math. Neither math nor statistics have an inherent desire to overpower humanity but we can make bad use of them.” If you think that you’ll wake up one day to the whole world being slave to computers, you can stop worrying. You’d be surprised by how much technology has advanced in just the last 5 years and even more surprised if you knew where it plans on going. Maybe in 10 years you’ll be working on AI in your own respective field and changing the world one machine at a time. Artificial Intelligence is a beautiful thing. Its potential has no limits and it holds the capacity to help people across many facets of life. As it is very powerful and smart, it can have some negative effects on certain people. No matter whether you’re interested in it or you know nothing about it, your life is impacted by AI every single day. www. the-underground.ca OCTOBER 2017 VOLUME 37, ISSUE 02
SCIENCE & TECH 33 www. the-underground.ca OCTOBER 2017 VOLUME 37, ISSUE 02
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Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS NEWS 6 HURRICANES HARVEY A
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