last updated 13 June 2024
Background:
In the 1968 Movie "2001: A space odyssey" The computer in a space ship takes over . HAL controls most of the functions on the ship and used natural language to communicate with the crew.
There was a lot of speculation of what computers could do from good things like language translation and medical diagnoses to taking over the world.
Experts said things like that were 30 years away.
See AI for a history.
50 years later AI has become ubiquitous and there are new concerns about the dangers and a lot of political discussion about how to keep it from getting out of hand.
Machine learning has evolved with a lot things that are very useful
- Good language translation
- Self-driving cars.
- Better search engines like Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot which can synthesize a response using several web sites or documents instead of just a list of links.
- Generative AI - A type of AI that can create new data, like text, images, audio, and even code. It works by analyzing existing data and learning the patterns and relationships within it.
Some examples:
- Image generation. e.g. draw me a picture of a sea monster in Lake Tahoe attacking a boat.
Give me a picture of me surfing.
- Generate singing "We Shall Overcome" in my voice
- Give me a book review of "War and PeaceÕ
- Give me the javascript code to build a checklist for my webpage
- Machine Learning - Part of Artificial Intelligence . Machine learning algorithms build a model based on sample data, known as training data, in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to do so.
Examples:
- Speech and handwriting recognition.
- Identify whether a text is SPAM based on being trained on numerous SPAM messages.
- Image identification (e.g.) Identify plant or animal species from a photo.
Some are contentious like eliminating jobs e.g. handwriting recognition, which has replaced human mail sorters with machines. But they make businesses more productive and create new jobs.
But some of the new technology has been misused.
Generative AI has been used for things like:
- Showing realistic images and voice of real people saying things they never really said.
- Students getting generative AI to complete writing assignments.
- Bias in AI Decisions - If not properly managed, AI can perpetuate or even amplify existing biases.
Links:
AI Glossary
