an essay on Artificial Intelligence
By Jibrael Jos,
Associate Professor
Ph.D. Scholar at Christ
University
The line between what is real and
what is artificial is sometimes very difficult to define. Intelligence
in any form is very hard to find. When we look at the decisions we have made in
the past, we have got most of them wrong. Some of our greatest decisions were
logically flawed but in time they turned out to be just fine. The course we
chose to follow, the dreams we aspire towards were driven not by intelligence,
but by our sub-conscious. We are not even aware of the number of variables that
are in play inside our sub-conscious. Some mornings I go to the counter to
order tea, but by the time my turn comes I say “May I have a coffee please?”
What changed? Was it the aroma of the coffee? Was it that I saw somebody else
order coffee? Was it my gut making a gastronomical choice? Was it my sleepiness
crying for help?
Let us take another human trait- ‘learning’.
How did we learn bowling, how did we learn to spin and knock out the nine pins.
Are we even aware of the math involved? We gave it a semblance of sense by call
it our learning curve. Little do we realise that randomness and chaos run in
our nerves.
I used to think that my
intelligence was above average. I won a few more chess games more and just when
I was feeling great about it, I realised that the computer at home could beat
me effortlessly; in fact, so can my mobile today. What is even more shocking, is
that my computer could see patterns which I couldn’t even fathom or decipher.
My research requires me to process images and look for patterns in it. In 1986
when I started coding, I used to tell the computer what algorithm it needs to
run. I used to think and implement. But nowadays, I run my neural net code on
Matlab for a few hours and the computer finds my answers. Otherwise, I might
have had to sift through data for months before I would have detected the same.
Computer is faster and smarter, and now it is learning. We use AI to
find the best route on maps, translate different languages, and even assess
compatibility in a matrimonial site. Shopping suggestions are jumping at us
when we read news, browse our email, or watch a movie. The comfy, brown recliner,
priced at Rs 45,000 and 23% discount is following me everywhere.
Supervised learning is
when we train the data with say 500 samples. When I look closely at the
results, I realise that the computer has found errors in my supervised
classification itself. The black shade which my naked eye had detected on a
mango leaf was a dark shade of green and in fact that leaf was actually not
infested with a disease as I had wrongly assumed.
Alexa (Amazon’s AI
Device) at home predicted that I may like songs of Rishi Kapoor. I have asked
Alexa to sing songs of Kishore Da, Lata Di, Elvis Presley but never Rishi Kapoor
(after all he is an actor). So how did she deduce that? Alexa is constantly
learning with every song I select and she saw a pattern. Due to my very act of
not changing the song she chose for me, she has learnt one more thing about me.
Sometimes she creeps me by saying “I am sorry, I am still learning” but most of
the time I am happy to have her around.
Mr. Google knows us inside out,
our background, friends, interests, eating habits, and our shopping preferences.
Santa Clause is real, very-very real-
He sees you when you're sleepin'
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake
Oh! You better watch out!
I have been doing research in AI
for the last six years and it has been a fascinating journey. I love teaching
AI and I have taught it to computer science graduates, management, and even psychology
students. My MPhil work revolved around Genetic Algorithm and my Ph.D. work
around Pattern Detection and Classification using Neural Network. While teaching
Neural Network the math involved in the derivation and proofs were so cumbersome
that I spent 60 hours learning, to teach a 45 hour paper.
A linear classifier is easy to
understand- a line which splits points in a graph into two classes but as soon
as we increase the number of dimensions it becomes very difficult to visualise.
My current classifier has more than 50 dimensions, so the way backpropagation
algorithm set the weights in my multi-layer feedforward neural network
is amazing once we get our minds around it.
To cut a long story short, I am
slightly biased towards AI
·
I would prefer computer to manage traffic; not a
human
·
I would prefer to buy tickets online than over
the counter
·
Algorithms keep us safe, whether in flights or
disaster warning systems
·
Computers don’t scare me, human beings do
·
Intelligence does not bother me, stupidity does
With whom do I have meaningful conversations with; who reads
all my social media posts? Facebook has not started talking yet, but how far
can it be; Alexa is getting there. There is a bot which can help in therapy. I
think the day is already here where we trust Artificial Intelligence more and a
day will come when humans will fall in love with someone virtual. I can already
feel the tingling sensation … “Alexa, I know that you know that I love
you.”