Artificial intelligence and the advancement in robotics are some of the world’s leading scientific studies, including how the advancement will affect the world, how one would handle living with an
advanced robotic world, and how scientists will create these machines. Any appliance or machine made to [simulate a human task] falls under the category of artificial intelligence. From a [Blackberry] to a robot that can perform the daily tasks of a human, artificial intelligence is widespread. Artificial intelligence is a whole new way to go about technology. [(American Association of Artificial Intelligence)]
Because of movies and stories, most people believe artificial intelligence is just simulating humans. But actually, most of the machines made do not represent human behavior. [Today there are machines that can observe a human for an extended period of time and solve a problem that they may be experiencing. Certain people often question] whether scientists could create a machine that is exactly like a human. [(American Association of Artificial Intelligence)] In this case, the robot would have to be just as smart, talented, and be able to accomplish the daily tasks of a human. [(Critical Concepts)] [People also question how the effects of having smart robots would change society.] People would start to rely on the robots; and therefore, if something happened to the robots, people would be at a disadvantage because they had come to rely on them.
After World War II, people started researching and experimenting with artificial intelligence. The first to study this category of science was Alan Turing. [Alan Turing was born in the year 1912, in Paddington, England. He attended Cambridge University for his undergraduate degree, and then obtained his PhD at Princeton University. One of his first machines was the German Enigma cipher machine. In 1952 he was accused of being a homosexual. He was unable to complete his studies. The next year he died from cyanide poisoning.] [(The Enigma)] He proposed that the best way to go about this science was to use computers not machines. By the late 1950s[,] the study of artificial intelligence was underway. [(“What is Artificial Intelligence?” )]
[The superior goal of artificial intelligence is to create a robot that can solve problems and process like a human.] Scientists do not know when this goal will be reached. They hope that it will be within the next twenty years. Some researchers think that to achieve this goal of thinking just like a human, the mechanism will have to be compiled with a load of information in order to reach its standard. [(“What is Artificial Intelligence?” )]
Artificial intelligence is researched in two different perspectives. One is the biological side and the other psychological. The biological side is the study that humans are smart. The psychological side also includes the physiological side of humans. These two sides represent the robot’s common sense and ability to achieve goals. Some scientists argue whether robots should have free will. Free will means being able to make one’s own choices. [(“What is Artificial Intelligence?” )]
Some of the earliest examples of artificial intelligence translate as far back to the Greek gods. In one of the myths, gods created a machine named Talos. He was made of bronze and would throw rocks at the intruders on the beaches of Crete. He also picked up the intruders and gave them a burning squeeze. [(The Next Fifty Years)] The study of artificial intelligence was finally taken into careful consideration at Dartmouth College in 1956. Four scientists took the study into deep research. This includes John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Herman Simon, and Allen Newell. They built some of the first robots that could solve algebraic word problems. [These men made predictions that they could construct robots that could be smarter than humans within twenty years.] They were given over five billon dollars, but they failed to create such a machine in that period of time. Although the scientists did not make a human-smart machine, they made other advancements. Along with their mistakes they created other marvels such as industrial robots, language translators, the Google search engine, speech recognition, and data mining machines. [(“What is Artificial Intelligence?” )] [Artificial Intelligence is the technology used in many of today’s machines, ranging from banking systems that detect attempted credit card fraud, to telephone systems that understand speech, to software systems that notice when you’re having problems and offer appropriate advice.] [(Waltz)]
[Despite the slow advancement of Artificial Intelligence over the years, there are still very many new machines being made today. Some of these are autonomous vehicles, Deep Blue, mathematical theorem proving, and Pegasus. These machines will help expand the study of artificial intelligence. ] [(Waltz)]
[The autonomous vehicles were first tested by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). An on-board computer system from Carnegie Mellon University was able to drive the van for only 52 miles at an average speed of 63 miles per hour, rain or shine, day or night. The van was supposed to drive 2,849 miles from Washington, DC to San Diego, California. Deep Blue is an example of a machine that has been created to think like a human. In May 1997, Deep Blue, IBM’s computer, played chess against the world’s greatest chess player. The smart machine came out of the match with a victory. [(IBM)] Mathematical theorem-proving is a computer system at Argonne National Laboratories. Its accomplishment was being able to solve a long algebraic function that would be very hard for a human to solve. Pegasus is used by American Airlines. It is an online interface that sets reservations for flights all over the world. Also it allows users to check on flight information whenever they like. Pegasus can be accessed through either internet or telephone. NASA has also recently created a machine that can classify a star from a faint galaxy by just faint signals. It is able to learn its information by reading different experts texts.] [(Waltz)]
[Artificial Intelligence machines that we use today expand from one’s stock portfolio to drug researchers. When using a stock portfolio, it automatically modifies your market position and makes the smartest trades for you. There are cars that can drive for you in a sort of auto-pilot mode. Also, there are online systems that can automatically order one’s groceries based on previous purchases. There is now a system that can manage and pay bills just by memorizing pay patterns. Drug researchers can now use artificial intelligence for intensive bio-computational modeling in relation to the enormous amount of data from the human genome project to help find cures in ways never thought of by a human.] [(Moy)]
Robotics made a dramatic leap from 1970 to 2007. In 1970 Shakey the robot could not even roll from one side of the room to the other in eight hours. But by 2007 the robots of the DARPA were crossing thousands of miles of desert. Although researchers have yet to create a robot that can function exactly like a human, artificial intelligence has come a very long way. In the next few years, the people of the United States could be working next to a robot. [(Critical Concepts)]
Adam Wedding
English IIIH/Period6
Mr. Martin
31 August, 2007
Science and Technology Research Paper
Works Cited
History of Artificial Intelligence. American Association of Artificial Intelligence. 15 Sep 2007
McCarthy, John. “What is Artificial Intelligence?” 1/9/2007. Stanford University. 15 Sep 2007
“The Next Fifty Years.” Dartmouth College. 15 Sep 2007
Chrisley, Ronald. Artificial Intelligence: Critical Concepts. United States: Routledge, 2000.
Hodges, Andrew. Alan Turing. 8 May 2006. Alan Turing: the Enigma.. 10 Nov 2007
Deep Blue.” IBM. IBM. 10 Nov 2007
Waltz , David . “Realizing the Ultimate Promises of Computing.” Artificial Intelligence. 1996. 11 Nov 2007
Sloman, “Artificial Intelligence: In your Life Today .” 5 August 2005 . Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behavior. 11 Nov 2007