Top 7 Amazing (Somewhat Terrifying) Facts about AI

Number 1

Most AI is “Female”

One thing that you may have noticed when it comes to AI is that you possibly interact with, like Google Now, Siri, and Cortana, that the default voice is female. For the record, this isn’t one of the terrifying facts; we just find it fascinating that AI tends to be female. Why is that, exactly? Well, there’s no specific reason but a few factors play into it. For example, studies have shown that males and females both like the sound of female voices a bit better. Another reason, according to Karl Fredric MacDorman, a computer scientist and expert in human-computer interaction at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, is that most men work on AI so they probably find females attractive and want their AI to follow suit. Kathleen Richardson, a social anthropologist, said that female AI would be less threatening than male AI. For example, compare Samantha in Her to the Terminator machines. Well, except for Terminator 3, but then again, who the hell actually remembers that movie?

Number 2

Artificial Intelligence Pets?

Pets are great, but they have a number of downsides. You have to clean up after them, they can be destructive, they need to be fed, and of course, they die. Something that will take care of all those downsides is AI-driven pets. University of Melbourne animal welfare researcher Dr. Jean-Loup Rault says that there are already a number of patents for robot pets and they could be widely available by 2025. Rault says that in the next 10-15 years, developers will work on a number of aspects of AI and robotics so that manufacturers will be able to build pet bots that people will be able to make an emotional connection with. Rault believes that robotic pets will be one of the only viable options for most people as the world gets more populated. He theorized that by 2050, only the incredibly wealthy will be able to afford real live pets.

Number 3

Artificial Intelligence Can Repair Itself

On the terrifying end of the spectrum, there was a paper published this year about a robot that could rebuild itself, even after losing two of its six legs. The robot doesn’t know what’s broken but notices that its performance has dropped. Then, using an algorithm based on trial and error, the robot can figure out what’s wrong and how to repair itself. The researchers who developed the robot said that as it fixes itself, it updates its database with all the things that will not work in a phase called “simulated childhood.” This phase lasts for a few minutes and during that time, the robot processes 13,000 possible movements. Those movements are pulled from 10^47 different behaviors, which is an unfathomable number. For comparison, that’s how many atoms make up the Earth. The implications of this type of artificial intelligence are essentially limitless. Some of the more exciting prospects include search and rescue and deep-sea and space exploration.

Number 4

Artificial Intelligence Can Write?

The first piece for a major news organization that was written by AI appeared on the Los Angeles Times website after a newspaper article reading: “A shallow magnitude 4.7 earthquake was reported Monday morning five miles [8km] from Westwood, California, according to the US Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 6.25am Pacific time at a depth of 5.0 miles. According to the USGS, the epicenter was six miles from Beverly Hills, California, seven miles from Universal City, California, seven miles from Santa Monica, California, and 348 miles from Sacramento, California. In the past 10 days, there have been no earthquakes magnitude 3.0 and greater centered nearby. This information comes from the USGS Earthquake Notification Service and this post was created by an algorithm written by the author.” The computer was able to write the article based on data that was pulled from seismographs, which turned them into figures and then plugged those figures into a story. The technology was developed in part by Larry Birnbaum, a professor of journalism and the head of the Intelligent Information Laboratory at Northwestern University. He was one of the developers of the Quill system, which is an app for companies that do minimal writing. It takes statistics and graphs and compiles them into written reports. As for creative writing, like novels and screenplays, that is the next step for AI, but it’s obviously complicated. Perhaps AI will start off at a Nicholas Sparks’ level and then work itself up from there.

Number 5

Artificial Intelligence can be a Fierce Poker Player

A big step in the evolution of AI was when IBM’s chess-playing. A Deep Blue computer beat the reigning world champion, Garry Kasparov, in 1997. Another milestone was in 2011 when IBM’s Watson appeared on Jeopardy and completely destroyed some of the best Jeopardy contestants ever. AI took another major step in May 2015, when a supercomputer called Claudico from Carnegie Mellon University competed in a game of Heads-Up No-Limit Texas Hold ’em poker at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh. The tournament lasted two weeks and 80,000 hands were played. In the end, Claudico came in fourth, and the “loss” was close enough to be considered scientifically valid, meaning that statistically, Claudico tied his human competitors. While it didn’t win, it was a big step in AI computing. The big difference between a game like a poker and playing chess or Jeopardy is that poker has a lot of missing information, and bluffing is a major strategy and not a logical way of thinking. Researchers said that the tournament was a great start and they believe that by 2020, AI will be able to beat the best poker players in the world. This type of AI also has a number of other applications instead of just trying to clean out casinos. The algorithms used in Claudico will be applicable anywhere there is incomplete information, including cybersecurity, medicine, and negotiations.

Number 6

Artificial Intelligence Can Learn?

There’s a saying about computers that they’re only as smart as the person using them. However, with advancements with AI, computers are starting to learn by themselves. For example, Google developed an AI system that taught itself to play Atari 2600 games. After doing so, it beat some of the world’s best players. Another learning AI system is an android developed by the United States Army that learned how to cook from watching YouTube videos. The robot was able to learn the skills from visual recognition and trial and error. While it’s unlikely that the military will use robot chefs, cooking uses a wide arrange of skills so it is an excellent demonstration of what the robot is capable of.

Number 7

AI Will Become Smarter Than Humans?

With AI having the ability to learn, computers are getting to be pretty smart. As of 2013, AI was about at the same intelligence level as a four-year-old and there have been lots of advances since then. For example, in 2014 a supercomputer cracked a complicated math problem called the Erdos discrepancy problem, which was published in 1930. The amazing thing is that humans can’t even double-check the solution because the equation is too long. The file is 13-gigabytes, and just for comparison, all of Wikipedia is about 10-gigabytes. According to renowned futurist Ray Kurzweil, by 2029 AI will be at about the level of intelligent adult humans. Beyond that, anything is pretty much possible, especially if AI can get exponentially smarter. For example, Kurzweil believes it could lead to something called a singularity, which is where humans and machines will meld into one entity.