The World of Everything: Making Sense of the AI Hype

By: Gregory Yates

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere, bringing hype and fear to almost everyone. As we move into an automated future, we have to start considering things like will robots really make human jobs obsolete? According to Oxford University, researchers estimate that ‘robots’ could potentially automate 47% of U.S. jobs within the next 20 years. Scary, right? The buzz around the upcoming SXSW Conference that kicks off later this week is all about AI, so I’ve been asked a lot recently if all of the hype is real?

AI is still in its infancy stage. While it is moving towards its tween stage, the problem now is that people are jumping on the AI bandwagon without fully understanding what it is and how to successfully create it. I equate it to the Wild West – the main AI players are using a statistical methodology that is known to be inaccurate. Companies everywhere are claiming to have AI or be creating AI, using open source platforms and using an AI engine from the same place. In reality, proper AI should be developed by a skilled mathematician, and not a statistician, with a technology background and knowledge broader than simple probabilities to create an AI engine that can be utilized into different mediums. People are rushing into AI to be part of the trend, but like most things, we will start to see a large percentage of the subpar AI phased out. The true and successful AI will move away from the statistics based model we are seeing now, and move into a deterministic model that looks at data and solves it.

For example look at the Echo that I personally use at home. It has its limitations, however, it should be considered a baby that still needs to learn. Current AI should not be treated like a grandparent full of knowledge with all the wisdom of the world yet; it should be treated like a child with an understanding that it is not going to know information it has not been fed yet. As more organizations start back filling the brain of AI, then the AI will learn more and start to do learning on its own.

Yes, believe the hype, but be patient with expectations. One day the AI imposters will be gone, and the real AI will change day-to-day operations across all aspects of our lives. The key is combining biometric data with AI data, producing the most robust form of humanized intelligence. We will move away from the concept of artificial intelligence and move towards the idea of cognitive intelligence. The future will be the World of Everything (WoE) or a 365° view of everything tangible and intangible that surrounds us. Our cognition mission will be able to solve for all of it.