Machines will learn to make decisions and perform all the intellectual tasks of a person’s brain
Artificial intelligence, through the use of algorithms, allows machines to imitate the connections and cognitive processes that take place in the human mind. It is capable of storing data, analysing it and making decisions, as well as learning from experience and exchanging information to help people in their daily lives.
The sector that is having the most impressive results is that of predictive artificial intelligence, which makes it possible to “see the future” and has application in multiple fields. It will be implemented in all types of activities and services. Thanks to the presence of sensors on clothing, for example, and even inside the body, medical records will be constantly updated and monitored. This data will be analysed by predictive algorithms, and if any alteration occurs in the parameters – heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar level… – this technology will be able to foresee health problems long before people notice any symptoms.
On a daily basis, the forms of artificial intelligence with which we most often interact are those dedicated to information search, text analysis, classification and summary of results; to the recognition of speech patterns –the virtual assistants of Apple, Amazon or Google–; to the automation of mechanical processes in industrial environments; and the adaptation of various parameters to the consumer’s tastes, taking into account the user’s previous experience – as in the case of Netflix.
Thus, Manuel Fuertes, president of the Kiatt Group, assures that medical diagnosis, management of economic securities on the stock market, commerce, law, heavy industry or logistics and transportation are some of the areas that have experienced the greatest application of artificial intelligence to processes or services.
Microsoft, Apple or Google compete in a market that could reach 50 billion dollars. Likewise, Fuertes maintains that these companies do not only struggle through developments carried out by their R&D departments, but also with the acquisition of small start-ups that develop algorithms to execute very specific processes. “The challenge for these large companies is to integrate these small artificial intelligences into a larger one capable of developing several complex processes at the same time,” he adds.
Future
Microsoft, for example, wants to democratise artificial intelligence so that everyone can benefit from it. In fact, it has already begun to apply it to every device and application. Apart from the well-known Cortana, another tool that will allow artificial intelligence to be “injected” into products and services of daily use is Microsoft Graph, an intelligent structure that helps connect people, conversations, projects and content within the company’s cloud. “With this vision of bringing artificial intelligence to people’s daily lives, at the end of this year we will launch the Fall Creators Update for Windows 10, which will make use of the potential of the cloud and artificial intelligence to make user’s lives easier, allowing them to continue with the tasks they are performing from one device to another”, says Ángel Sáenz de Cenzano, director of the Platform, Development and Innovation division of Microsoft Ibérica.
In the short term, given the connection of objects to each other and the constant sending of data between them, machines will be able to teach things to each other, without the need for human intercession. Likewise, helped by the “sensorisation” that will occur thanks to the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence will make it possible to predict accidents and failures, and act accordingly to avoid them. In the medium and long term, Fuertes highlights that the challenges involve learning to make original decisions on one’s own, seeking new information beyond what machines have been taught; and for being multidisciplinary. And, today, “Artificial Narrow Intelligence”, or Weak Artificial Intelligence, is a very effective technology in developing a specific process. “All our phones search for results on the Internet, classify photos, archive texts according to their content, recognise faces… but none of them have the holistic capacity of a human brain to be able to perform all of these tasks.” And the president of the Kiatt Group adds that the next step is to find “Artificial General Intelligence”, or Strong Artificial Intelligence, “that knows how to perform, at the same time, all the intellectual tasks of a human brain”.
Sáenz de Cenzano, for his part, points out that the new era of more intelligent computing will cause data to be organised in order to achieve new objectives. And he adds that today, thanks to “deep learning”, for example, computers can recognise words in a conversation – like a person does – and offer translation in real time. “At Microsoft we firmly believe that humans and machines will work together to find solutions to the main challenges”, he says.
A golden era
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, believes that artificial intelligence is going through a “golden age.” A diagnosis that is also shared by Fuertes, who thinks that this is a moment of expansion, in which “we have only seen the tip of the iceberg. Discoveries are being made that will have important implications for years to come”.
Sáenz de Cenzano asserts that artificial intelligence is increasingly present in people’s lives thanks to the possibilities offered by the cloud. And he adds that at Microsoft they see how the reluctance they may have had towards this technology disappears as they see artificial intelligence not as a substitute for human intelligence, but as a tool, just as the PC once was, to enhance their work and achieve unimaginable things.
