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Leslie Fletcher

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE; SHOULD WE BE GOING MORE

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Edited by Leslie Fletcher, Monday, 6 Feb 2017, 12:52

A Conversation We Should Be Having

As part of TU100 Block 1 Part 1 Activity 8 discussing business I was reading an article in the Harvard Business Review written by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb (in the Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2016/12/the-obama-administrations-roadmap-for-ai-policy), I remembered a conversation I once had with a scientist working on artificial intelligence at Edinburgh University back in 2007. The conversation revolved around the feasibility of cognitive and self-learning function in non-organic processors. I could not accept the premise then, I am however, more inclined to a different worldview today.

Robin Li, the founder of Baidu in China said, “when the age of AI arrives, the [internet of things] will become a big market and completely change manufacturing. I think that in the future all manufacturing will be a part of the AI industry… China is a manufacturing giant, and I think we need to really pay attention to AI tech development…” The implications for manufacturing can already be seen in our car production facilities and our pharmaceutical industries.

These machines have though, so far, lacked "real" artificial intelligence. Why is this so important? Humans are quite useful in that they are able to understand context, problem-solve within that context, and are cognitively aware. As far as I am aware, processors lack the ability to determine self. By determining self, a natural empathy evolves. Without that, in my view, the “Terminator” movies of the past might possibly become a future reality. After all, humans are not perfect, machines have the ability to become perfect. Natural order determines the strongest survive. This was my argument back in 2007, and still is

Practical applications already exist. Researchers at Stanford University “are excited after artificial intelligence was repurposed for software developed by Google to determine the difference between cats and dogs. It was shown 129,450 photographs and told what type of skin condition it was looking at in each one. It then learned to spot the hallmarks of the most common type of skin cancer: carcinoma, and the most deadly: melanoma. Only one in 20 skin cancers are melanoma, yet the tumour accounts for three-quarters of skin cancer deaths. The experiment, detailed in the journal Nature, [full publication available from: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v542/n7639/full/nature21056.html] then tested the AI against 21 trained skin cancer doctors.” (excerpt from an article by: James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News website, 26/1/17 at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38717928)

Leading the way is China. Given their massive population, it makes sense to increase their manufacturing capacity and productivity. Close behind in the conversation is the United States with England fifth producing journal articles mentioning keywords; “deep learning” or “deep neural network,” (according to “The National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan in October 2016).

Whatever your view, I think cognitive function will not ever be truly possible. I do however think, something extremely close will evolve. A Frankenstein monster? We can only wait and see.

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