Artificial Intelligence or AI. It’s a term that we hear actually, a lot today. Particularly in reference to new things that are merging or coming through, like autonomous vehicles. But what is it? What’s it all about and why have Microsoft, Google, and even Obama, being in the news, about recently?
My Thoughts
So, it’s just been in the news, that there’s fake footage of Obama.
This was generated, using Artificial Intelligence technology that took his real voice, took some footage of him and then adjusted that footage to say what was said in the recording.
Obama: Symbolizes some progress at least within the small confines of the legal community….
But this could’ve just easily been somebody faking him, his voice and then, by putting his lips, and motions and movements to those words. So, Artificial Intelligence is very powerful.
Microsoft has just announced that their Microsoft Research Division is putting one-tenth of their staff to focus on artificial intelligence. This is a massive area for the future. And we looked at who the companies are, that is, really, heavily investing in this.
It’s Facebook, it’s Google, it’s IBM, it’s Microsoft. Really, the big technology players are investing heavily in this. What’s exciting though, is that their investments don’t lock everyday individuals and businesses out because most of them are making those advances available.
So, anybody can draw on their technologies. So, we have some exciting things ahead. What sort of things can you expect?
Well, autonomous cars are already mentioned. They’re very much reliant on this Artificial Intelligence technology.
We are already starting to see now personalized tutors. So, these are tutors that would be smarter than an individual person to gauge where you are and how you are progressing with your learning.
That’s coming through right now, from a company here in New Zealand, where I’m based. So, really, there is a huge amount of development where you see, of course, things like facial recognition.
Right now, we now utilize something like Siri on your smartphone or the competitive products from Google, Microsoft, Amazon.
Well, these are using Artificial Intelligence on their background, to figure out what you’re saying and to understand that even if there’s another noise or if you’ve got an unusual accent.
All of that is being dealt with by Artificial Intelligence and the reason that this is moving forward so quickly right now is because of the massive increasing computing power.
If we look back just a few years, we have an absolute fraction of the amount of processing power that we have today that continues to grow at a somewhat exponential rate.
So, we can expect to see Artificial Intelligence just become a normal, everyday thing over the next few years ahead. And some of those things, well, we’re already used to living with right now.
So, what’s next? What do you need to be prepared for? Well, my suggestion is to keep a lookout on what is happening in Artificial Intelligence.
If you’re an individual, then play around with those things like the little assistant that’s on your smartphone. Get a feel for how Artificial Intelligence can work to help you.
I personally use that technology when I’m in my car and I’m driving, so that I can be safe but still communicating with people, have messages read to me and I transcribe messages back to them. And I’ve been using that technology for five years or so, so very helpful.
In businesses, well, there are lots of opportunities. And businesses should be looking to tap into the power of the leaders in that space.
Tap into what IBM, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and so on are doing and be inspired by watching what the top players are doing, how people are invading and think about how could this apply to your organization.
Hey, thanks for joining me. This has been Paul Spain. You can track me down for further updates – paulspain.com/updates.