Artificial Intelligence
From Sci-fi to Reality AI or Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by the machines to solve problems on their own. The official definition of AI was first coined by John McCarthy at the Dartmouth Conference. Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom opined “Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make” about the evolution of AI beyond the academia in the last couple of decades PJ Sam Alex
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oes JARVIS ring any bells? The trusted accomplice of Tony Stark aka Iron Man! Inspired by the celebrated Marvel comics& movie, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in 2016, developed a home assistant JARVIS, voiced by Oscarwinning actor Morgan Freeman.JARVIS is equipped with language processing, facial and speech recognition capabilities to perform basic tasks such as cooking breakfast, playing music and taking care of his daughter Max. How much can a computer do? Can it take up decisions on its own? Well, there seemed to be not-so-relevant questions before the millennium. But today, the domain of artificial intelligence has grown exponentially that it has occupied our daily lives in ways we could never fathom. Every decade has had its share of technological 26 Executive Knowledge Lines • May 2018
buzzwords, be it PCs in the 1980s or Internet in the 1990s. AI or Artificial Intelligence is the buzzword of the decade. AI has become central to the functioning of almost all the tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook etc. Artificial intelligent capabilities account for the visual perception, speech recognition or decision making abilities of the machines. In 1950, Alan Turing, the man who broke the Enigma code, in his paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence, proposed the question Can Machines Think? At this juncture of technological innovations, we can answer Yes to his proposition. AI will probably be one of the greatest technological breakthroughs of the 21st century. It will provide us the power to study humanity with a different approach and possess the potential to change humankind.