by Reeti Shah
Imagine a robot trying to serve soup and, instead, splattering it all over the person’s lap. This is just one of the terrible robots that Simone Giertz creates. She uploads videos of robotic machines that she purposefully designs to be horrible at performing their assigned tasks. Honestly, nothing is funnier than a robot aggressively performing a task and then failing miserably at it.
Robots are just an example of artificial intelligence, or as it is more commonly known, AI. AI is basically when a machine or man-made creation has the ability to think and perform tasks like a human. Although technology has progressed, AI today can only perform at most one task with high precision. Some examples of AI that are everywhere are Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa. These are voice-controlled personal assistants built into our devices that can respond to simple commands. They can play a specific type of music you request, call someone, set an alarm, and do many other tasks for us. They even have a sense of humor. For example, try asking Siri what zero divided by zero is.
Google Glass, developed by (who would have guessed) Google, is another type of AI. It’s a headset that’s supposed to be worn like glasses with a screen that can show you emails and notifications immediately. Although this device isn’t commercially available, it’s still incredibly useful. For example, surgeons around the world have found Google Glass useful in the operating room and for patient care. Surgeons have even used them for brain, heart and eye surgeries. Other potential medical applications of Google Glass are still being explored.
In addition, self-driving cars are one of the most exciting applications of AI, where humans are not responsible for safely operating the car. These cars have sensors and software for controlling, navigation and driving themselves. Many major companies such as Google, Uber, Nissan and Tesla have made prototypes of self-driving cars. Some potential advantages of self-driving cars are that they could lead to less crashes and help elderly and disabled people to drive. However, there is always the potential for malfunctioning in self-driving cars, which could lead to disastrous results. In March 2018, a woman was killed as a self-driving car developed by Uber crashed into her.
AI could lead to many benefits by making our lives easier and causing advancements in medical technologies. However, some experts such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk warn that AI can cause harm, as it can increase unemployment and even take over humans. Other experts disagree, as they believe that AI is not advanced enough to overpower humans. The future of AI is uncertain, but if used correctly, it can help a lot of people and make life much easier for us.
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