A cool video from the early 60s on AI. The Thinking Machine (Artificial Intelligence in the 1960s) - YouTube: "Can machines really think? Here is a series of interviews to some of the AI pioneers, Jerome Wiesner, Oliver Selfridge, and Claude Shannon. A view at the future of computer intelligence from back then..." Alan Turing gave us some thoughts on how to think about AI, and test for it with the Turing Test. Computing Machinery and Intelligence A.M. Turing: "I propose to consider the question, "Can machines think?"
It seems that in the first 20-30 years of computing, there was some expectation that AI was soon to appear, and some disappointment when it did not.
However, the last 20 years of the internet have enabled increasing computing power to an increasingly digitized world. Our phones are mobile computers and data collection devices, and the tentacles of the net are now moving into our cars and homes (2016: The Year of AI Made Real | Blake Irving | LinkedIn). Advances in hardware have extended so far that now the cloud is able to service our needs, and the focus really is on the software (Marc Andreessen on Why Software Is Eating the World - WSJ). It does feel like the "Matrix" is starting to cover our world.
I think that applications of AI are really a function of data capacity, processing and speed. And it seems like we are getting closer to the point where enough data can be processed quickly enough to enable those applications.
--------------------------------------------------
Marc Andreessen on Why Software Is Eating the World - WSJ: "My own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy. More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services—from movies to agriculture to national defense. "
2016: The Year of AI Made Real | Blake Irving | LinkedIn: "Applied Artificial Intelligence is the Only Game in Town We can all agree that this year hasn’t given us any reason to believe that the T-1000’s are any closer to our doorsteps, but 2015 has given us some serious clues that the “applied” variety of AI has reached an inflection point that will move it from niche to mainstream. These task-specific AI have all been in the works across many industries for quite a few years. But the journey from R&D labs into people’s homes and businesses seemed painfully slow up until now. I believe 2016 will be the year that AI becomes real for a greater majority. What was bleeding edge this year — from home automation to cars — will quickly become commonplace. "
Comments