Posted on: August 10, 2017
Artificial intelligence is one of the most exciting areas of technology today, and it’s certainly among the more controversial. We’ve all seen that AI has its place on the assembly line, for example, but could a robot really ever be intelligent enough to be your coworker? While only time will reveal what AI actually has in store for us, the fact stands that it’s here and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. We’re seeing it adopted into our daily lives (Siri and Cortana, anyone?), and we can only expect to see more of it as the technology advances.
Because of its potential in the work environment, enterprises around the globe are paying more attention to AI than ever before. In order to stay on top of things and in the know, we urge you to learn as much as you can about AI, including how it works and how it could be used in your business in the not-so-distant future.
How It Works
Although the basic ideas and principles governing AI problem-solving capabilities are quite simple, the execution is very complicated. It all starts when an AI robot or computing device begins to gather facts about specific situations via sensors and/or human input. The AI then compares this data against stored information and makes a decision about what the information means. Next, it runs through different possible courses of action and makes a prediction about the action or actions that will be the most successful, based on its collected information. While some AI computing devices are only able to solve problems that they’ve been programmed to solve, others actually have learning abilities in a somewhat limited capacity. Finally, some of the newest AI technologies are able to interact socially, recognizing body language and voice inflection. The more the technology advances, the easier it is for AI to adapt and learn.
Interestingly enough, though, despite the fact that we know the theory behind how artificial intelligence works, we don’t know EXACTLY how it works. AI is actually viewed as somewhat of a “black box.” This simply means that humans aren’t able to track how it’s “thinking” or how it works its way from point A to point B. Numerous experts are attempting to solve the black box issue in order to help humans better interact with AI and enhance communication.
Why It Matters
Right now, most of us are used to working with low-level AI’s like Siri and Cortana. This type of AI is able to sift through data, perform commands like playing music or searching Google, and tell us what the weather is like. In these cases, it’s not too important to know how AI came to an answer, because it’s just a suggestion. When it comes to something like Watson (which, by the way, is now able to do more than play “Jeopardy!” – it’s developing personalized health plans, targeting marketing demographics, and finding errors in legal documents), we need to know more, though. After all, how can we completely rely on something if we don’t truly understand how it’s “thinking”?
The Future of AI in Businesses
Because we don’t yet fully understand how AI comes to its conclusions, we don’t expect robots to be talking shop around the watercolor with you and your team anytime soon. Even so, as we understand more about AI, we are advancing toward a time when AI’s could be your coworkers, and this shouldn’t be feared. Instead of taking away jobs, AI exists to enhance performance and to free up your time to perform more high-level tasks that require a human touch. As we continue to embrace lower-level AI for sifting through data, spotting patterns, and offering suggestions, we’ll get more used to the idea of AI in our everyday lives.
Interested in learning more about AI? Give the experts at Uncommon Solutions a call today.
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