A look at artificial intelligence in the present, the near future, and science fiction imagination.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a topic limited to engineering professionals, tech hobbyists, or science fiction fans. It’s also a lot more complicated than taking jobs from warehouse workers.
As new AI technology continues to thrive in the behind-the-scenes infrastructure of industry, it’s time for anyone who wants to be ahead of the curve to think about what the immediate future has to offer. Here are a few Artificial Intelligence details that are already revolutionizing industries across the world, along with areas to keep an eye on as AI gives birth to even more paradigm shifts.
There’s Still Time to Get in on the Ground Floor
Smartphones changed the world by allowing handheld computers at affordable prices–despite the popularity of luxury brands–to be used anywhere. The internet was a big innovation before smartphones, allowing research, communication, and entertainment to happen much faster than flipping through an encyclopedia or waiting for a specific TV show to start.
There are many ways to measure how powerful or potent new technology can be. The inspiring changes are great, but what about the times where these innovations fall short of expectations? Slow internet, corrupted or failed downloads, bad battery life, or the privacy concerns that come from both internet convenience and mobile device cameras and sensors.
Artificial intelligence is in a strange position. Many people incorrectly wonder what will happen when AI becomes a part of normal society, and they focus their attention on robots or virtual reality personalities.
Focus your attention on call centers and prepare to innovate. Even with multiple companies investing in AI, and even industry giants such as Google on the scene, the ground floor of artificial intelligence is still here. There are many more discoveries to be made, and there isn’t a clear monopoly on any direction of AI technology.
Automated Responses and Customer Service AI
One of the biggest areas of AI development for the business world is in automated responses for call centers. The ability to hear a person’s response and translate it to a relevant answer is a seemingly simple task that has had an impact on the world long before the internet became a household concept.
Think about the number of people who get angry thinking about all of the times that a “robot” at a company’s call center gets their information wrong. Speech recognition and answer matching is a societal nuisance to the point that anyone who gets it right will easily get praise and higher engagement from clientele.
It’s a big victory, but it pales in comparison to the big picture. Simply matching a voice answer to an index with limitless memory is just the surface level of a much bigger system. The system is meant to be paired with the more experimental part of public-facing AI, where artificial personalities are designed to hold conversations.
When these two systems are refined, don’t just think about the new world of human-like robots. By all means, invest your money there, but spread your focus. If you’re in a call center or customer research position, the information gathered and analyzed can help you solve complex problems before a human technician or analyst needs to put forth effort.
This doesn’t simply make work easier or get rid of jobs. It turns on the lights of new research industries that human workers and AI technology can build upon together.
Look Beyond Sci-Fi, but Keep Fiction in Mind
Star Trek has moments that humanize the character Data and show the possibilities of AI and human interaction. Terminator has both a robotic menace and a robotic hero.
The Japanese anime series Chobits has a human-like robotic girlfriend who learns about the world, and another Japanese series named SaiKano (Saishū Heiki Kanojo, literally Ultimate Calm Girl, but also known as She, the Ultimate Weapon) features a robotic girl who wants to live a normal Japanese schoolgirl life despite being fully aware of her status as a military weapon.
All of these stories are sold to the public as some sort of ultimate goal–or accidental future–of artificial intelligence and robotics. As AI becomes more advanced, one overlooked theme becomes more apparent; even in far science fiction, there are still bugs to work out.
As you look toward more realistic advances in AI, such as automated responses and learning research systems, there’s nothing wrong with reaching for the far future. Keep your imagination alive and market to the imaginations of others, and get in contact with an AI expert as soon as possible before the spark of inspiration fades.
