What was different about DeepMind’s AlphaGo program beating the human Go champ vs IBM’s Watson beating the Jeopardy champs?
Deepmind’s AlphaGo utilized machine learning, and during the Go match that was played against a human player, AlphaGo became increasingly stronger in its ability to make decisions over the course of the match. Whereas IBM Watson utilizes a series of mapped recall question and answer statements; no additional learning took place by the computing system.
Besides the obvious uses of AI/ML in security processes, financial processes, in health processes, etc., where do you see AI/ML’s pattern analysis capabilities really making a contribution? More simply: when will a AI/ML-powered robot do your job? Do the jobs your parents did? Do the jobs your children are being prepared to do?
In my current institution, our department is beginning to dabble with project innovations utilizing artificial intelligence technologies. Our team is creating an empathy chatbot to teach future health professionals how to communicate empathically with their patients. This technology utilizes IBM Watson and employs a string of question and answer statements. It does not utilize machine learning techniques.
In my day-to-day life, however, I find the most recent implementation of AI at the drive-thru menu speaker to be quite fascinating. Our local Panda Express drive-thru has an AI that takes your order through the speaker. At times this can be rather frustrating because the AI needs to go through a series of Q & A selections when taking your order. It takes longer to order through this AI process because the system cannot keep up with the order. Also, if you forget to add something or want to make an edit to a previously ordered item, the system cannot edit these corrections. This implementation of AI within food service is still in its infancy, and it’s only a few years away from being implemented across all fast food service locations, thereby replacing the people who were once originally employed to do this job. Yet, as an aside, with our California minimum wage jumping to $15/hour, it was only a matter of time before the companies sought to replace human employment with more cost-effective technology options. The implementation of AI contributes to cost savings for not just the restaurant but also allows the corporations to provide lower prices to the customer due to the overhead cost savings.
We must consider the jobs of the future when training our future workers; namely our children. My daughter is taking computer coding classes in high school, and perhaps one day she will invent the tech of the future. My son, he’s still a little young and hasn’t decided on his career goals. But, as a tech-savvy parent, I understand the value of STEM education and, at minimum, understanding the technology around us. We must prepare our workers of the future to work with the tech, design the tech, and use the tech because if they are not tech savvy there may not be a successful future for them.
References:
Koenig, R. (2021, March 5). May I take your order? how AI is Changing Fast-Food Drive-Thrus. TODAY.com. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from https://www.today.com/food/may-i-take-your-order-future-ai-fast-food-drive-t210791
Lucas, A. (2022, August 29). Panera Bread tests artificial intelligence technology in drive-thru lanes. CNBC. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/29/panera-bread-tests-artificial-intelligence-technology-in-drive-thru-lanes.html
