Artificial intelligence creeps into daily life
Artificial intelligence creeps into daily life
Sophie ESTIENNE AFP December 15, 2016
San Francisco (AFP) - Mark Zuckerberg envisions a
software system inspired by the "Iron Man" character Jarvis as a
virtual butler managing his household.
The Facebook founder's dream is about artificial
intelligence, which is slowly but surely creeping into our daily lives, no
longer just science fiction.
Artificial intelligence or AI is getting a foothold in
people's homes, starting with the Amazon devices like its Echo speaker which
links to a personal assistant "Alexa" to answer questions and control
connected devices such as appliances or light bulbs.
Analyst Carolina Milanesi of the research firm Creative
Strategies said that "2016 was the year about raising awareness, and
exposing consumers to the idea of AI in a more mass market way."
Milanesi said it may take time for the technology to
fulfill its potential, noting that companies need "a strong hook" to
bring large numbers of consumers into this world.
Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimates that
Amazon has sold more than five million of its connected speakers such as Echo
since 2014, in a market now heating up with competition from Google Home, and
others likely in development.
Google meanwhile is also using its AI prowess to make
smartphones smarter -- its Allo messenger can, for example, suggest a meeting
or deliver relevant information during a conversation. Among other tech giants
Apple has been quietly ramping up the capabilities of its Siri digital
assistant and Facebook its Messenger platform.
- Driving the car -
AI is also the key "driver" for autonomous
vehicles, around which Google, Uber, automakers and others have expanded
efforts in the past year.
And Amazon is seeking to put AI to work in the
supermarket -- testing a system without cash registers or lines, where
consumers simply grab their products and go, and have a bill tallied by
artificial intelligence.
Stanford University AI researcher Alexandre Alahi, said
he sees a future "where intelligent machines are omnipresent in our daily
lives."
"We will see robots in the home and (powering)
self-driving cars, but also in railway stations, hospitals and elsewhere in
cities," he said.
This could include delivery robots or devices to help
mobility for blind people, he noted.
- Safety, health, productivity -
These technologies "will help improve our safety,
our health, and our productivity," Alahi said.
A system of sensors for example, can monitor a hospital
patient 24 hours a day, and may allow elderly people to remain at home with
better medical surveillance.
These systems rely on powerful computers which can
crunch, analyze and interpret data.
One example of this comes from IBM, whose Watson supercomputer
systems are offering "cognitive health" programs which can analyze a
person's genome and offer personalized treatment for cancer, for example.
Meanwhile Google recently announced it had developed an
algorithm which can detect diabetic retinopathy, a cause of blindness, by
analyzing retina images.
While Alahi said AI systems designed to recognize and
interpret data from images "are close to human performance," more
work needs to be done to improve "social intelligence," or
understanding the subtleties of our everyday decisions.
A self-driving car, for example, can easily navigate
around Google's home base in Mountain View, California, but may have more
problems around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where driving behaviors are less
predictable.
Alahi said robotics needs to understand the unwritten
social behaviors used in daily life, which can vary from one culture to
another.
A robot, for example, might cut through a group of people
in a train station to find the most efficient path, unknowingly violating
social rules on personal space.
"There are situations where technology is not yet
capable of understanding human behavior," said Alahi, who is part of a
research project using a robot, with the aim of understanding pedestrian
behavior.
These kinds of robots may be technological marvels, but
they also raise fears that they could get out of control, concerns heightened
by movies like "Terminator."
"It's all scary, but this is going to take years to
happen, and by the time it's done, we'll be ready for it," said Milanesi.
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