The Skinny on Artificial Intelligence

#C3PO

#R2D2

#skynet 

#Hal

#Wall-E

The pop fiction visions of #artificialintelligence bifurcate to optimism or pessimism. #AI is either going to take over the world or it’s going to become a better best friend than real people. These fictitious characters are examples of artificial general intelligence (#AGI) .  Although it makes for great movie substance, the reality of AGI is further away than Mars travel and likewise some argue, impossible. 

What generates numerous effects in your daily life now is Artificial Narrow Intelligence (#ANI).  ANI finishes your sentences in Gmail or texts. ANI filters your spam and selects music for you. #Siri ANI answers your questions.

ANI – the AI we have today – can do specialized tasks far better than we can, but that’s all it can do.  As Janelle Shane puts it though, “machines have been superior to humans at specific tasks for a while now. A calculator has always exceeded humans’ ability to perform long division – but it still can’t walk down a flight of stairs.” – You Look Like a Thing and I Love You.

So oddly, the ability to walk and chew gum still pays off 😉