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The idea of artificial intelligence (AI) can still be a scary one for many people. Thoughts of our jobs being taken by robots, or more dramatic prospects, such as a machine vs man apocalypse scenario, are still very much in our collective imagination. But things are not what they seem.
At Google South Africa this week I attended The Magic in the Machine – a discussion with senior representatives of Google worldwide who explained the future of what is now being called “machine learning”. It may sound like something out of a science fiction book, or a technical term used by software developers, but the fact is you already are part of machine learning.
From keeping spam emails out of your inbox, to photo recognition, facial recognition, all the way to recognising an infinitesimal molecule in the collision of molecules, machine learning is an inseparable part of our modern lives.
As Blaise Aguera y Arcas, principal scientist for machine learning and AI at Google put it – it might be scary, but more than anything it proves just how smart the human brain is. The human brain has been the inspiration for machine learning, and now we are teaching computers to teach themselves.
Google products using the technology are changing our lives. You can now speak to Google on your device if you download the Google app, and say “Okay Google”. Google Search uses RankBrain, a ranking signal that can guess which results users will favour with 80% accuracy. With Google Photos, you can search for anything from “hugs” to “dogs” because the system uses image recognition systems. Google Translate allows you to communicate in another language using machine translation. It comes in 103 languages, reaches over 500 million users worldwide and is now available in Kiswahili, isiZulu and isiXhosa.
We also saw a few of the more fun results of machine learning, such as the outstanding Deep Dream images. Using gazillions of images, Google uses a neural net to create artworks that are beautiful and a great visual explanation of the infinite variation and possibility of clever machines.
