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<\/a><\/p>\nGetty Images 2018<\/h6>\n
What is AI?<\/strong><\/p>\n Accenture\u00a0defines Artificial Intelligence as\u00a0a collection of\u00a0advanced technologies that allow machines to sense, comprehend, act and learn.\u00a0(Accentrue\u00a0LLP, 2019)<\/p>\n The emphasis here, for some, is on act and learn,\u00a0the fact that\u00a0AI machines can learn from human interactions to craft a better way to serve human needs. The adoptions of new process and adaptions to a better process by AI,\u00a0\u00a0which are usually done in\u00a0real-time, could be why a lot of the machines are known\u00a0as\u00a0\u2018smart machines\u2019, machines with the\u00a0ability\u00a0to start off from human ingenuity whilst adding machine based efficiency and accuracy.<\/p>\n What can AI do now and in the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n The questions for some AI watchers and certainly many more AI sceptics is are we allowing AI to take over human roles and is\u00a0the instigation of\u00a0AI being\u00a0actioned\u00a0too soon and without examining the fuller picture? Dr\u00a0Safavi, a developer and watcher of AI for\u00a0Accenture\u00a0Global Health, asserts that we may actually be taking a too narrow view of the potential of AI,<\/p>\n \u201cUntil now, many business leaders have taken too narrow a view of AI. To maximise the potential of AI and be digital leaders, healthcare organisations must\u00a0re-imagined\u00a0and reinvent their processes from scratch\u2014and create self-adapting, self-optimising \u201cliving processes\u201d that use machine learning algorithms and real-time\u00a0data to\u00a0continuously improve. Machines themselves will become agents of process change, unlocking new roles and new ways for humans and machines to work together\u201d.\u00a0(Accentrue\u00a0LLP, 2019)<\/p>\n Aside from Dr Safavi\u2019s comments many watchers and developers of AI system still don\u2019t foresee a current or future trend which sees humans being cut \u2018out-of-the-loop\u2019 completely. Instead the future, as told by AI developers and trend watchers, is that AI aims to complement humans\u2019 actions\/interactions either because the technology is not yet intelligent enough to take over human control completely, or that humans are able to offer a more considered holistic and autonomous response to any given situation and thereby using AI as commander and master.<\/p>\n The area of contention is\u00a0in the introduction of\u00a0the use of AI algorithms covertly. One example of this is applications of AI algorithms\u00a0in\u00a0fund awards or finance. Virginia\u00a0Eubanks, associate professor of political science at SUNY, looks at AI algorithms as a way to\u00a0stay\u00a0neutral when distributing\u00a0correct\u00a0and ethical welfare funding. Some (watchers) reaction to the use of AI algorithms for this purpose is it is the only way the process could be neutral and the impartiality could only come from a smart machine. Some sceptics may state that in cases such as this, could the AI be initially framed as providing more accuracy but actually, the\u00a0data is initiated from humans who control data input and\u00a0devise\u00a0algorithms. Watchers and sceptic\u2019s both offer a warning\u00a0to be\u00a0wary that AI\u00a0should be\u00a0seen as unbiased or neutral but we still need to consider the human interaction and interpretation of the data.<\/p>\n It is commonly understood that most AI technology requires a\u00a0first\u00a0large amount of\u00a0low-level\u00a0human\u00a0response, either programming or data input. Thereby this brings automation and autonomous behaviours in to question. There have been instances of intelligent apps which\u00a0are started, monitored and delivered by humans but styled and wrapped as an autonomous AI system.\u00a0An\u00a0intelligent smart machine can somehow sound more\u00a0progressive\u00a0and futuristic to some consumers. Astra Taylor, writer and documentarian, questions what exactly is AI autonomy?\u00a0(Schwab, 2019). Taylor goes on to describe a scenario in a caf\u00e9 when a customer asked how the intelligent app knew his meal was ready, the counter assistant stated \u201csimple, I just texted you to say it was ready through the app\u201d.\u00a0(Schwab, 2019)<\/p>\n Trends 2019 – future…<\/strong><\/p>\n If you have ever invoked an interactive \u2018virtual assistant\u2019 aka Amazon\u2019s ‘Alexa’ or Apple\u2019s version\u00a0 ‘Siri’, then you will understand that mobile and laptop keyboards are void, as the systems work purely on voice commands of the user. Virtual assistants combined with echo speakers produce digital responses to users verbal questions, these command results are then stored by the device and allows it to build up a working picture of the user\u2019s needs, favourite activities, special songs, special dates etc… the devices are literally your digital personal assistant for life. More than voice commands the virtual assistants have moved on to set and reset the user\u2019s home environment, they can set ideal temperature, record favourite TV shows, set cookers and lights on. All this\u00a0is controlled\u00a0through either voice commands from a distance, or set locally using timers.<\/p>\n The next 2019 trend is\u00a0deep machine learning,\u00a0<\/u>this term refers to the use of network hierarchy which mimics neural networks to ultimately gain recognition of external words or pictures from short abstract parts. Deep learning refers to the depth of network processing through layers of algorithms devised to translate and intuitively understand pictures and words and relay this back to humans.<\/p>\n The next big AI trend for 2019, according to the Irish Times and MIT involves the film The Minority Report. Like it or loathe it our personal data\u00a0is used\u00a0readily by many commercial companies and marketers. Using the personal data AI driven personalised marketing is on its way for 2019. Supermarkets\u00a0are said\u00a0to ditch the price tags in favour of digital smart displays which will guide you personally through the store according to your own personal shopping list.\u00a0(Bonan, 2019)\u00a0The minority report experience will also govern your everyday retail experience, plugged with facial recognition and reading your data users could find digital adverts in shopping malls featuring apt products based on your age, likes and dislikes, personal shopping habits and brand linked products based on your buying history.<\/p>\n Finally the next biggest 2019 use of AI is security and surveillance. Japanese designed deep learning algorithm entitled AI Guard man\u00a0will be armed\u00a0with learning about suspicious behaviours in shoppers, they will also be able to view these behaviours recognise them and alert waiting electronic device cameras to follow and track the\u00a0person, whilst alerting staff. This type of intelligence can also be placed on large crowds, which will direct drones on specific\u00a0people\u00a0to record data and alert the police\/security to recorded data in\u00a0real-time.<\/p>\n Why does AI matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether you are a sceptic or a watcher, AI and a so-called brave new world is coming ready or not. But why does it matter, and why do we need it? Whatever you believe the common message out of the AI industry is that AI machines are not about to replace humans. The main role of creating intelligent self-driven machines is to analyse data and information in new and different ways to humans, taking on a different and alternative line of thinking for real-world problems. Many AI developers believe they are designing a new wave of relationships between machines and humans and creating partnerships to fight common human problems.\u00a0\u00a0AI plans for the future\u00a0is set\u00a0to breakdown real-world barriers such as language translations and politics, to give humans a new vision of a problem or issue, to improve analytics and data sourcing to offer a richer picture.<\/p>\n Notwithstanding the purpose and proposals for AI, it is also important to understand\u00a0AI will not solve every world problem in minutes. As with all machines AI has its limits, the main limit is just like humans AI only learns from what it is given, the major downfall with any AI system starts from the fallible human instigation of the data and the upkeep and translation of the data.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>And finally\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n The main concept to understand, at this stage, for AI (domestic use) is that computers or machines are able to support our human needs, they are able to give humans information and extremely accurate data which is clearly understood and trusted.\u00a0\u00a0Domestic users will be able\u00a0to use\u00a0data and programme devices without being\u00a0an expert in the field. AI will allow the processing power and analytics with a more human facing interaction.<\/p>\n On a larger \u2018big data\u2019 business and commerce level, the time to analyse big data and compute this\u00a0will be decreased\u00a0allowing business to use the data in reasonable time to allow the\u00a0facts to\u00a0work more pragmatically for them and their customers. The biggest difference for the future is in healthcare, a real human weakness is our health and conditioning of that health. AI\u00a0is set\u00a0to analyse large data and offer clinical staff the ability to make better decisions for health and recuperation of their patients. In the home robots and assistive devices will become part of a patient\u2019s rehabilitation or even keep our loved ones alive and well.<\/p>\n However we interact with AI, either now or in the future, for leisure, business or learning it seems if the\u00a0zeitgeist\u00a0are correct we are seemingly destined to\u00a0join\u00a0it in to our daily lives very soon. Whether a watcher or skeptic AI is current and presently used data informs us that we will use some form of AI in the next five years. How we interact and how much we interact with AI is still entirely down to the individual users, so it\u2019s over to you\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly being used to aid humans in\u00a0many\u00a0scenarios and everyday tasks or challenges. From health and welfare to\u00a0leading\u00a0military systems AI is already being seen by designers and developers, as futuristic technologies which are available today. But what is AI technology? What can it do? What can it do for humans now and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":1776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-comment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1789,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions\/1789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}