From Robotics to ChatGPT: My Adventures Through AI

From the moment I was introduced to the world of #robotics and #artificialintelligence, I was hooked. My fascination started during my undergraduate days when a friend introduced me to his research on anthropomorphic robots. The idea of a robot head mimicking head cervical inflexion, extension and rotation with precision really intrigued me. This was in 1994, long before the Korean Sci-fi movie, Jung_E hit the big screen.

Fast forward to my career as a research scientist. I was captivated by the work of roboticist and MIT Professor Rodney Brooks. A robotics entrepreneur and founder of multiple startups such as Rethink Robotics, iRobot Corp and Robust AI, his work was inspired by mosquitoes. Prof Brooks realised these insects could move effectively in their environment despite having relatively very?little brain power.?

What excited me back in 1996 was how behavior-based robotics was different from traditional AI. The latter typically uses a set of steps to solve problems based on some internal representations of events. In comparison, a behavior-based approach is reactive and draws from knowledge drawn from past experiences and basic behavior to solve problems. Think of your robotic vacuum cleaner.

My research work involves the simulation of a large number of autonomous intelligent "micro" systems to search and identify pre-defined objects. Robotic agents would be deployed in large numbers to collectively search an unfamiliar area, searching for objects of interest and upon locating them, secure themselves to the object or “dropping a pin” to mark the object's location.?

It was an enriching experience that taught me a new programming language and understanding of how artificial neural networks #ANN work. And its applications were numerous:?speech recognition, computer vision, and medical image analysis, etc. While I imagined targeted cancer treatments, Hollywood dreamed up a metallic shape-shifting Terminator, T-1000!?

And I didn’t stop there. Eventually I left for the United Kingdom in pursuit of a Doctorate degree at Southampton University and?a Post-Doctorate research stint at Imperial College. And then returning to Singapore to work on Bioengineering in Nano-scale with global talented scientists at A*STAR - the Agency for Science Technology and Research.

As the world's attention turns towards #AI and #chatgpt , I'm reminded of my past adventures in the field of robotics and AI. And while parents in Singapore are relieved that their sixth graders can beat OpenAI's #ChatGPT in math and science for now, there's no telling how this might evolve as the AI platform becomes more sophisticated.

Having witnessed the early stages of what AI can do, I can't wait to see where the next level of AI will take the world. But for now, I'll take comfort in the fact that my old robotic vacuum cleaner is still chugging along with its reactive behaviors, navigating around obstacles and keeping my floors clean.