Artificial Intelligence refers to the simulation of human intelligence by machines. In simple words, it refers to the creation of intelligent machines, particularly PC’s that are able to perform a range of things that can previously be performed only by humans.
From its inception to the present, the realm of AI has witnessed a plethora of innovations. This article will present few such remarkable breakthroughs that have happened in recent years.
Sophia, The Social Robot
- Developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics, Sophia is a social humanoid robot
- The robot was granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia in October 2017, becoming the first robot to have a nationality
- The robot received the United Nations Development Programme’s first ever Innovation Champion, thus becoming the first non- human to receive any United Nations title.
- To date, Sophia can display more than 50 facial expressions
- With the help of the cameras within the robot’s eyes, Sophia is able to see, sustain eye contact, remember individuals and follow faces
- A Natural language subsystem allows the robot to have conversations and process speech.
- The robot was upgraded with functional legs in January 2018, thus attaining the ability to walk.
Norman, The Psychopathic Robot
- Created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Norman is the first Psychopathic Artificial intelligence
- Norman was trained via Machine Learning (MI) using large volumes of skewed data, including “extended exposure to the darkest corners of Reddit.”
- According to MIT, Norman is a case study on the negative consequences of using biased data in Machine Learning(ML)
- When subjected to Rorschach Inkblot Test, Norman was shown an image which it captioned as ‘a man is electrocuted and catches to death’ as compared to a standard AI which captioned the same image as ‘a group of birds sitting on top of a tree’ pointing to the stark difference in perspective
- Interesting Tidbit: Norman is named after Norman Bates, a psychopathic killer in Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho.
RF- Prose, The See-Through-Walls AI
- Now, DC’s Superman is not the only person having X-Ray vision!
- Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), RF- Prose is a new AI system that is able to see human movements through walls
- Using neural network, this AI system detects and analyze radio signals bouncing off a person’s body and then creates a dynamic stick figure that is able to imitate human movements.
- RF-Prose could be used in monitoring diseases like Parkinson & MS
- It could also be used for security purposes, in search & rescue and in video games
Creative AI
- Ever heard of “Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash” ?The content of the book is as absurd as it sounds.
- This book was not written by J.K. Rowling, rather by Botnik Studio which fed a computer’s algorithmic tool with the Harry Potter saga and in return got the said book( 3 chapters)
- AI has also forayed into music composition, as evidenced by Shimon.
- Developed by Georgia Institute Of Technology, AI Shimon composed 30-second pieces of original music in June 2017; something similar was showcased by Google during Barcelona’s Sonar festival.
On the cards..
Revamping With AI
Google is set to revamp its Google Maps and Google News soon!
- Google will enable users to open camera with Google maps to launch what is called as Visual Positioning System(VPS). With VPS, the traditional google maps will transition into real- time pop- ups of the city- street.
- AI will also power Google News, enabling a richer representation of the world; most visible in Google news’ new full coverage feature
- Powered by AI, Google News will present information from the web in a non-personalized and algorithmically generated flow depicting a timeline of events as the story broke. Google news will also present opinions, analysis of the aftermath and videos & tweets from YouTube
