Artificial Intelligence(AI) : Future Technology Trend

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of the most disputable domains of inquiry in computer science since it was first proposed in the 1950s. Computer power has rocketing since 1960s and with every sore AI program have been taken on new problems using old methods with great success. AI has contributed to the state of the art in many of research include game playing, natural language understanding and synthesis, computer vision, problem solving, learning, and robotics.

What is Artificial Intelligence(AI)? 

Artificial intelligence is a field that attempts to provide machines with human-like thinking. In some sense AI is engineering inspired by biology. Our aim to build machines that do what they do. Yes you just read "do what they do" is true that means we want machines to be able to learn in the way that they learn, to speak, to reason and eventually to have consciousness.  AI is not only engineering but at this stage it's science, modeling in cognitive science.

The confused history of 

AI has its origin in the publication of British mathematician Alan Turing's paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" (1950). I think if AI is tackled logically it would perhaps "Artificial Biology", looking at living things and saying "Can we model these with machines?". The earliest approach to AI is called symbolic or classical AI and is predicated on the hypothesis that every process in which either a human being or a machine engages can be expressed by a string of symbols that is modifiable according to a limited set of rules that can be logically defined. Symbolic AI met with immediate success in areas in which problems could be easily described using a limited domain of objects that operate in a highly rule-based manner, such as game of chess takes place in a world where the only objects are thirty-two pieces moving on a sixty-four square board according to a limited number of rules. Symbolic AI faltered, however, not on difficult problems like passing a calculus exam, but on the easy things a two year old child can do, such as recognizing a face in various settings or understanding a simple story. Hubert Dreyfus makes a similar argument in Mind over Machine (1986); he suggests that human experts do not arrive at their solutions to problems through the application of rules or the manipulation of symbols, but rather use intuition, acquired through multiple experiences in the real world. He describes symbolic AI as a "degenerating research project,". After decades of research and project nowadays engineers have adopted new approach by breaking up AI research into more specific problems, such as computer vision, speech recognition and automatic planning, which had more clearly definable goals, scientists managed to create a critical mass of work aimed at solving these individual problems. Some of the fields, where technology has matured and enabled practical applications, are:

• speech recognition
• computer vision
• text analysis
• robot control

Thinking ahead

We must see beyond the science fiction and ensure we are working toward AI development that allows us to harness its immense potential. Many experts believe some of the biggest advances in artificial intelligence are years, if not decades, away. Google, Facebook, Apple and others are all developing AI tools. You can try out some apps today that demonstrate fledgling forms of the technology by smartly, swiftly and automatically doing tasks that would otherwise take lots of effort. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are no more restricted to personal assistance technology, smartphone companies are creating. They have flouted these conventions to disrupt a much wider space with limitless possibilities. One of the areas radically transformed by AI is eCommerce. Visual Search and image recognition, product recommendation, intelligent agent, assortment intelligence tool, voice powered Search are a few key areas in eCommerce which can be transformed by the application of Artificial Intelligence, some of them are already in existence- 

Image recognition technology that can identify textures and patterns in apparel and suggest related products (Image Source)

In case of India, eCommerce biggies like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon are proactively investing fortunes in AI research and development. Apart from intelligent chat facilities, these companies have introduced image recognition feature to their platforms which is attributed to deep learning.

According to Sachin Bansal, CEO, Flipkart, artificial intelligence is a key differentiator in the fiercely competitive business of online retail. He believes, “the big disruption that is happening across the world is the rise of artificial intelligence.” Therefore, by combining social, mobile, big data analytics and AI, Flipkart attempts to build human brain-like capabilities to sell smarter to its more than 45 million registered online buyers. Recently, the company launched its messaging service on its app, called Ping. It serves as a shopping assistant embodying artificial intelligence, to help users easily discover the item they are looking for on its platform. Here the data of leading patents awarded related to Artificial Intelligence  will speak the increase in AI development.

It would be an understatement if we say, “Artificial Intelligence is the next big thing”, for it is already here, and of course, with a bang! 

Tech juggernauts across the world are advancing at an incredibly impressive pace towards the crux of this technology. Google for example, is conducting a highly advanced research on AI called Thought Vector, in an attempt to infuse common sense into machines. Similarly, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft are working on their respective projects on AI development. 

The learning machines of tomorrow have much to offer, but we must earn that future by replacing any irrational fear with continued research and development, driven by our very human desire to improve and innovate. AI is already here, and it’s only going to get smarter.