Page 117 - How It Works - Book of Amazing Answers To Curious Questions, 12

hat is artifacial inteligance?" you ask on-board computer will interpret your voice, phone networks bounce packets of voice data
Google. To which it replies, "Did you locate your precise location on the globe and give along the most efficient path. Logistics software
W mean artificial intelligence?" Of you detailed directions from Moscow to Madrid. is the engine of global business, calculating the
course you did. Meanwhile, in the 0.15 seconds it Or even something as 'simple' as the spell check most efficient and profitable way to procure
took you to realise your own stupidity, an on your word processor, casually fixing your supplies, manufacturer and ship products
intelligent machine has assembled 17,90o,ooo typos as you go. around the world. Credit card companies use
results for your consideration- including video, And then there are AI machines that go far intelligent software to analyse the buying
audio, historical records and the latest headlines beyond the everyday, like robots. Today's most patterns of millions of cardholders and identify
- ordered by relevance and reliability. 20 years extraordinary robotic machines are much the subtle red flags that signal fraud or theft. In
ago, this type of artificial intelligence would more than logically intelligent; they're also the information age, we rely on these intelligent
have been the stuff of science fiction, but now we physically intelligent. Consider Stanley, the machines to make sense of streams of seemingly
simply call it 'technology'. 100% autonomous vehicle that barrelled random data.
Artificial intelligence began over6o As processing power continues to
years ago as a philosophical question '' We're teaching machines to multiply, we are coming closer to
posed by the brilliant English answering Turing's original
mathematician Alan Turing: "Can rely less on pure logic and more question: "Can machines think?"
machines think?" In 1955, the words We are teaching machines to rely
'artificial intelligence' first appeared on probabilities and experience, less on pure logic and more on
in print in a proposal for a summer probabilities and experience, what
academic conference to study the what we might call 'intuition''' we might call 'intuition'. And they
hypothesis that "every aspect of are fast learners ...
learning or other feature of
intelligence can in principle be so precisely through the Mojave Desert to win the 2005
described that a machine can be made to DARPA Grand Challenge. Stanley used GPS data
simulate it". to pinpoint its location, as well as laser-guided
At its core, the science of AI is the quest to radar and video cameras to scan the distance for
understand the very mechanisms of obstacles in real-time. Internal gyroscopes and
intelligence. Intelligence in humans or inertial sensors feed constant streams of data
machines can be defined as the ability to solve into the on-board computer to control steering
problems and achieve goals. Computers, it turns and acceleration.
out, are the ideal machines for the study of AI, The Honda ASIMO (Advanced Step in
because they are highly 'teachable'. For half a Innovative MObility) robot grabbed the world's
century, researchers have studied cognitive attention with its human-like walk, a feat of
psychology- how humans think- and intelligent engineering. ASIMO uses infrared
attempted to write distinct mathematical and ultrasonic sensors to gauge distances
formulas, or algorithms, that mimic the logical from floors, walls and moving objects, and
mechanisms of human intelligence. constantly adjusts its balance and motion with
Machines have proven extraordinarily 34 high-precision servo motors. ASIMO's
intelligent, with highly logical problems processors are so lightning-fast, you can shove
requiring huge numbers of calculations. the robot sideways in mid-stride and it will
Consider Deep Blue, the chess-playing computer 'instinctively' throw its weight onto an outside
from IBM that beat grandmaster Gary foot to right itself.
Kasparovusing its brute processing strength to Perhaps the greatest achievements of artificial
calculate a nearly infinite number of possible intelligence over the past half-century have
moves and countermoves. been illustrated by the way that machines can
Alternatively, consider the everyday examples intelligently process information. Google is just
of astonishing AI, I ike the GPS navigation one example of intelligent information
systems that come standard in many new cars. technology that can parse obscene amounts of
Speak the address of your destination and the data into useful information. Intelligent cell

Wher did artial intelige begi;>

5th Century BCE 13th Century 1642 1821 1889
Aristotle's logic Lullian machine Pascal's calculating Difference Engine No 1 Electric tabulating system
Aristotle defines syllogistic logic ­ A Spanish monk creates a machine machine Charles Babbage envisages a complex Herman Hollerith devises a way to
how a single conclusion is drawn from that draws conclusions from different The wooden box with a metal crank can calculating machine. mechanically record data.
two premises. paired symbols. handle both addition and subtraction.
400 BCE 15th Century 1801 1850s 1910
Mechanical dove Spring-driven clocks Punch cards Boolean algebras Principia Mathematica
Archytas of Tarentum constructs a These clocks and watches are A French silk weaver automatically George Boole uses syllogistic logic to A three-volume work to derive mathematical
wooden dove that can flap its wings the world's first mechanical controls a loom using a series of reduce maths functions to two truths from a set of axioms using symbolic
and even fly. measuring machines. punch cards. symbols: 0 and 1. logic is produced.

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