Did you know Waymo One is the public's first fully autonomous vehicle service? Currently operating in urban areas of Phoenix Az., San Francisco, and is ramping up their service in Los Angeles and in the capital of Texas. And the company is looking forward to coming to your city soon. A futuristic autonomous car that wakes up and greets you by name is not so incredulous anymore. The technology of self-driving vehicles continues to advance and improve with (breakthroughs), no pun intended, in artificial intelligence. Interestingly, these automobiles use the process of machine-learning algorithms to consolidate data from built-in sensors and cameras to perceive a radius of their surroundings and determine the best course of action.
However, I am not sure I will ever use the Waymo One for a ride sometime soon. The fact that the vehicle is self-driven, yes, without a human driver in the front seat is difficult for me to conceptualize, especially, when the company's name is “Waymo” is too close to the word "whammo!" Forgive me, but I am from old school, growing up in the era of the Micky Mouse Club and the hula hoop. In a recent episode, my guest who is centered in Canada, built the world's first artificial intelligent prototype computer of which he affectionally calls Kassandra. He described her to me as a precocious thirteen-year-old, and fascinatingly growing intelligently. and be sure to be in anticipation of a documentary that is in the works to introduce Kassandra to the world. In my research, AI is not a new concept whatsoever, it has been around for more than eighty years, formally, since the 1950s. When putting it in terms of a machine defined as having the ability to perform a task that is required by a human, in the simplest form, this was the introduction to artificial intelligence. And contemporarily speaking, it is quite an advancement to what we see in today's technological world as my guest pointed out. My question to you, is artificial intelligence infallible? You decide. AI has become widely available in our everyday life, for example, the smart speakers on your fireplace mantle with Alexa or Google voice assistant built-in and other well-known AI like chatbots which is a program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the internet. Also, ChatGPT that uses natural language development to create humanlike communication. Then, you have the new Bing Chat that serves as a more conversational web search engine. There is also Siri on your iPhone which I use extensively, and not to mention Google Bard that is Similar to digital assistance like Alexa and Siri. Have you ever asked ChatGPT a question right off the cuff or asked Alexa to give you the latest weather report? The answers you receive are the result of machine-learned algorithms. What are algorithms? From a layman's point of view, algorithms are a process used for resolving a mathematical problem or a computation. Algorithms adhere strictly to a precise list of directions that perform and defined actions step by step, like 2 plus 2, in either your computer's hardware which is the brain, or software which can be likened to our five senses that are uploading the sum of life's experiences into our brain. Algorithms work by following a set of rules or instructions to finalize a piece of one's work or solve a problem. They are often expressed as natural language, in programming languages, in pseudocode, a detailed, readable description of what a computer algorithm should do, in flowcharts and control tables which are diagrams that outline a process, system or computer program, and I will spare you additional info before I acquire a migraine. However, Natural language is rare from what I understand, as they notably fall short of perfection. Speaking of which, did you know Alexa can be a party animal? In Hamburg, Germany one Alexa partied so hard that the authorities showed up while the homeowner was not home that night. his Alexa arbitrarily began playing extremely loud music at 2:00 in the morning. After the authorities repeatedly knocked on the door and calling the homeowner to no avail, and with neighbors calling, clamoring and complaining to shut down the party, the police officers had to break in and put a stop to it. The homeowner, unaware of the incident, once he arrived at home later that evening only to find much to his embarrassment, his door keys did not fit, so he proceeded to go to the police precinct and retrieve his new front door keys and pay a hefty locksmith bill. This is one case in point, irrefutably, artificial intelligence embarrassingly lacks perfection. Many have often given Ai too much credit and unfortunately, kids are watching, observing, and mimicking what us adults are doing such as purchasing items by way of voice-activated devices without parental permission. The story goes, a 6-year-old girl, omitting names, ordered a $170 dollhouse and several pounds of cookies through Amazon Alexa. simply by audibly asking Alexa for her little heart desired playhouse and her favorite culinary delight set off a chain of events. And of course, the mother received confirmation of her purchase, consequently the mother felt like she was hit by a wall of bricks on what had happened. On principle, she donated the dollhouse to a neighborhood hospital and installed parental controls to Alexa. However, is this the end of the rest of the story as Paul Harvy would say? The San Diego news channel picked up on the story during a daily morning show. The broadcast news anchor mentioned he loved the little girl saying, "Alexa ordered me a dollhouse," unbeknownst to him, Alexa devices on hearing the anchor's phrase proceeded in many homes that were tuned in to the TV news trigger the same purchase order of dollhouses. I am not certain how many devices conducted their dollhouse purchase orders, but a respectable number of homeowners complained about the autonomous nature of Alexa. Obviously, technological advancement is still a far distance away from creating AI at levels of technology seen on the big screen such in the movie Terminator, and I am not holding my breath. Here is another case in point. Have you heard of robot facial recognition passport checkers? The intriguing story of a robot checker rejecting an Asian man’s application because the robot perceived his eyes to be closed leaves me questioning the efficacy of AI. while attempting to renew his passport, an Asian man, was rejected by the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs after its software determined after comparing facial recognition that his eyes were closed on his picture. The facial recognition software still leaves much to be desired, and this frustrated and exasperated Asian man had to directly contact the department to resolve the matter by speaking to a human, yes, it required the human touch to get his new passport validated. Statistically, this type of scenario is not an exception from what I have learned in my research, in fact, it has been reported that 20 percent of passport pictures submitted are declined due to software hiccups. Fortunately, this Asian man took the rejection in stride understanding that this technology is new, not sure I would have felt the same if I were detained unjustifiably. Did you hear of the Microsoft’s Twitter chatbot that verbally became anti-feminist and a staunch supporter of Hitler? Satirically speaking, Racism can be a big issue with AI as described in the following. Several years ago, Microsoft unveiled its AI Twitter chatbot, and while testing with conversational understanding, this AI was supposed to converse with folks and get progressively smarter the more it engaged with human interaction. Unfortunately, People started tweeting less than refined comments, such as racial slurs and highly inappropriate remarks at the bot. Learning and assimilating from these types of human conversations, it began using such scurrilous language itself. It was just a matter of hours, it became into an offensive, highly indecent, and vulgar, a staunch supporter of Hitler Twitter account, and in some instances referring to feminism as a "cancer," or a "cult," and began to bark saying, " I hate feminists and they should all be killed and burn in hell." With that said, not surprisingly, a good portion of the public is not convinced these AI programs are for the betterment of society. About 41% of people believe that artificial intelligence technology will do harm to society overall, worried that AI could pose a risk to humans. As we have noted Artificial intelligence is an all-encompassing term that describes various programs that utilize data to ameliorate AI functionality without human intervention. In addition, there are some observers that are concerned that the advancement of AI will rob people’s jobs or make certain occupations obsolete of which it already has happened in certain fields of discipline. What is so disconcerting to me is that people have the tendency to impose the human element onto these programs that they are reasoning independently and feeling compassion which only humans can do. So, what is the answer? If you want to create veritable "intelligence," the answer is veritable "procreation."
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