Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the field that combines cognitive science with math and physics to replicate the human intelligence within machine. This application of science requires us, as humans, to take what we know about "thinking" and apply it into our computers or any type of informational machine.
AI first git its feet on the ground in the early 1950's from a man named Norbert Wiener. Wiener was the first to make the connection between human intelligence and its applications in a technological world. He discovered what is known as the feedback theory. The best explanation to the feedback theory is to think of a thermostat. It controls the temperature of the environment by taking the actual temperature and adding or subtracting heat to accomplish its target temperature. Later in 1957, John McCarthy decided to hold a conference in Vermont that brought many experienced minds in similar fields together for a brainstorming session. This conference formed the known study of Artificial Intelligence.
As many of you reading have probably already thought if we discovered the possibility of AI in 1950 why haven't we made it a reality now? The answer to that is simply that to re-create the human mind would be impossible. A more in-depth answer is that a human mind contains way too many neurons and neural pathways to create everyone is just unheard of. The amount of material and money it would take is beyond what most would want to invest. This, however, doesn't mean AI hit a road block; in fact we realized that we could make AI do small chunks of cognitive thinking and allow for it to learn. An example of this is to think of playing chess on your computer. Depending on the difficulty you set the game, the computer has the potential to "think" 126 moves ahead. A normal chess master can often only think 3-4 moves ahead. How can you win? You win because you are the variable in the computers equation. By making a move the computer didn't anticipate you change the way the computer needs to rethink in its evaluation of the game and from it the computer learns how to react if the situation reoccurs. That's all it can do. That's is all it can do. The computer won't think of anything else, but chess.
In the video below, a robot attempts to solve a Rubik cube in about a minute.
As you no doubt have noticed from the video, mental intelligence is not the only thing AI has done. Besides having computers act as a second mind, like accident avoidance system in your car, they also have the ability to move and act as if they were human themselves. As a human we understand that we don't just think, but act! We can run, wave our hands, ride a bike (assuming you were taught to), and many other active motions. This is something many scientists involved in AI have thought about. The next video shows the most advanced robotics involving movement AI has to offer.
AI first git its feet on the ground in the early 1950's from a man named Norbert Wiener. Wiener was the first to make the connection between human intelligence and its applications in a technological world. He discovered what is known as the feedback theory. The best explanation to the feedback theory is to think of a thermostat. It controls the temperature of the environment by taking the actual temperature and adding or subtracting heat to accomplish its target temperature. Later in 1957, John McCarthy decided to hold a conference in Vermont that brought many experienced minds in similar fields together for a brainstorming session. This conference formed the known study of Artificial Intelligence.
As many of you reading have probably already thought if we discovered the possibility of AI in 1950 why haven't we made it a reality now? The answer to that is simply that to re-create the human mind would be impossible. A more in-depth answer is that a human mind contains way too many neurons and neural pathways to create everyone is just unheard of. The amount of material and money it would take is beyond what most would want to invest. This, however, doesn't mean AI hit a road block; in fact we realized that we could make AI do small chunks of cognitive thinking and allow for it to learn. An example of this is to think of playing chess on your computer. Depending on the difficulty you set the game, the computer has the potential to "think" 126 moves ahead. A normal chess master can often only think 3-4 moves ahead. How can you win? You win because you are the variable in the computers equation. By making a move the computer didn't anticipate you change the way the computer needs to rethink in its evaluation of the game and from it the computer learns how to react if the situation reoccurs. That's all it can do. That's is all it can do. The computer won't think of anything else, but chess.
In the video below, a robot attempts to solve a Rubik cube in about a minute.
As you no doubt have noticed from the video, mental intelligence is not the only thing AI has done. Besides having computers act as a second mind, like accident avoidance system in your car, they also have the ability to move and act as if they were human themselves. As a human we understand that we don't just think, but act! We can run, wave our hands, ride a bike (assuming you were taught to), and many other active motions. This is something many scientists involved in AI have thought about. The next video shows the most advanced robotics involving movement AI has to offer.
This topic is relevant to our Science and the Impossible because it takes science fiction and, not only shows you it can be true, but shoves it in your face. I guarantee you have used, seen, or became involved in something containing AI at least twice a day. That fact isn't even what's impressive, it is the fact that many experts in the field say that home-use robots will be an everyday thing in only 30 years! Apple's iBot anyone?
The above information was obtained through the following scholarly sources:
http://library.thinkquest.org/2705/ - This website contains interviews with experts in the field of cognitive science, robotics, AI, physics, and mathematics.
http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/pmwiki/pmwiki.php - This is the official educational site of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
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The second video made think that it is highly possible for us to have restaurants run by robots. The capabilities of the robot made it seem as though people will become unnecessary in providing services to us. If these are the things that robots are capable of now, it will be interesting to see what they have in store for us in the future.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that with the right artificial intelligence, robots can do almost anything a human can do. This in some ways scares me because humans are already so dependent on technology that I feel adding robots with AI will create a great deal of laziness in the human population as a whole. However, I also think this will open a lot of great possibilities as well.
ReplyDeletereading this blog post reminded me of WALL-E for some reason. It gave a lot of good info that i really never knew about. Like Jessica above said I think it will make the human population more lazy then they are now and some people are already very lazy. Its also frightening to think that everything can be controlled and run by AI. I think it will help us in the future but I also think its something we shouldn't get too dependent on or else we just might end up like all those people in the movie, never getting up to do anything.
ReplyDeleteI liked the two videos alot. To see the contrast of the two robots and the way they moved and fuctionality. Asimo is certainly alot more like the traditional robot then the first one, but they are both impressive. Can't wait until fifty years from now when we are fighting these guys. At least we'll have Will Smith on our side!
ReplyDeleteWatching the robots run is kinda freaky it makes me think that maybe police will issue robots to chase after suspects one day, and I would not want to be tackled by a piece of metal.
ReplyDeleteApple would make the iBot... haha! It crazy to think that robots can have the motor skills to run at 6KM/H. I wonder how fast they will run in the next ten years or how much they can lift, etc. It seems that will AI the sky is the limit and robots will be doing crazy stuff like playing basketball or something ridiculous like that soon.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of robots has been a part of science fiction for sometime now. Five years ago I would have thought that we would be farther ahead with this technology by now and its interesting to know that this is finally getting ahead. I'd love a robot to clean my house!
ReplyDeleteI think that robot servants would be incredibly helpful when you are simply too busy to do the necessities such as cooking and cleaning. However the use of robots for daily tasks that you are just to lazy to do, could have catastrophic effects on human nature, ie. Wall-E.
ReplyDeleteI uh ... don't trust robots just like I don't trust the elderly. Also, why do robots have to look so stupid? I wan't them to look like the terminator and not a giant child's toy.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of a robot learning and being able to take my job terrifys me.
ReplyDeleteIan, I think I understand what you mean by robots not being able to think outside of the box. I had an Introduction to Computer Theory class. One day the teacher told we had ten minutes to organize ourselves. She told us nothing else. We asked her how we should organize ourselves and all she would say is just organize yourselves. I believe we eventually organized ourselves by birth date. After we were done, she told us that we had just done something that no computer can do. Computers are little more than lines of code that need to be told what to do. They need input in order to give output and can do little otherwise.
ReplyDelete