Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer science involved with programming machines to carry out tasks normally requiring human cognition without human interference. So yes, it creates human brain wannabes. The goal for many machine learning scientists is to train computers to eventually think exactly like humans. Many say this cannot be done—that humans hold a biological intuition unmatched by any artificial device. I like this theory that makes us humans so special among the machines we create. At the same time, I can’t resist a challenge :)
Artificial Intelligence may seem like some distant, futuristic concept, but it is actually present in almost everything we do. Wake up and check your social media… AI decides which posts are most relevant to your likes and dislikes. Take a selfie (hopefully not with your bedhead) and AI is at work making you look your best. Sensors in your cars, advertisements on websites......it’s all AI.
There are four main branches of AI: computer vision, natural language processing, recommendation systems, and reinforcement learning. Today I will discuss the middle two (nice job ordering them, Ashna): NLP and Recommendations.
NLP is an intersection of linguistics and AI that aims to comprehend and create natural language, whether through speech or text. When I ask my eavesdropping Alexa device to “tell me a joke”, she uses NLP algorithms to understand that I want to hear a joke, not a choke. In addition, when Hurricane Irma hit the east coast, NLP algorithms analyzed Tweets about the Hurricane to locate which areas needed the most post-storm support. Truly, if machines learn to understand and speak human language, who’s to say our next best companion or tool is not simply a machine itself?
If you use the internet at all, you’ve certainly experienced recommendation systems. Those annoying ads that pop up on shady websites promoting the item you were JUST thinking about? Recommendation algorithms. Falling down a YouTube rabbit hole because the site knows JUST what you want to watch next? Recommendation algorithms. Netflix telling you what to watch next after you’ve just binged a whole series in a week? Recommendation algorithms. I, myself, am a VICTIM to recommendation algorithms. But if a company’s goal is for you to use their service more often, recommendation systems are what they need. These algorithms simply take the features of the videos/shows/products you like and find other videos/shows/products with similar features and… promote them! And they’re annoyingly accurate.
With the basics covered, I think I’ll leave you to go binge some more intelligently selected YouTube videos at your own will (or is it free will?) As for me, it’s 1 AM and I should probably get some sleep. That is if I am not an AI bot writing my autobiography right now… am I? Stay tuned for my next blog post to find out what the hack I’m talking about! Bye :)
