How AI Bots Are Becoming More Human

In the middle of Google Headquarters, something unbelievable — and almost science fiction-like — is occurring. Robots are studying human beings. They are memorizing the ways in which humans interact, perform mundane tasks, eat, drink, sleep, entertain themselves with household and other tech objects — everything we do on a daily basis.

However, this is not a part of an elaborate scheme to take away jobs from human employees, nor a plot to integrate artificial intelligence bots into our society. On the contrary, Google researchers are merely training these artificial intelligence bots to better identify and respond to human actions and interactions.

In the past, Google researchers have made extraordinary breakthroughs in the development and improvement of artificial intelligence. However, every version of every bot has struggled with completing the same tasks: identifying and classifying objects, humans, and the ways in which other humans interact with members of those categories.

With that fact in mind, Google has implemented an intriguing method of educating their bots to more effectively and efficiently identify human interaction — a tactic that entails hours of binge-watching movies.

Over the past several years, researchers have curated a catalog of over 57,000 movie clips — which feature over 96,000 human beings in total — from around the globe. Throughout any given day, these artificial intelligence bots go through the catalog and practice identifying and categorizing different actions and interactions.

Thanks to this method, the bots are getting a clearer picture of human interaction than ever before. This is because human action and interaction is less clear and identifiable in real time than it is in productions, hence why the bots have struggled so greatly to categorize them while observing live subjects.

Now, if this experiment gives Google’s researchers the results they so desire, it may not only improve the bots’ abilities to recognize human action and interaction, but eventually realize the purpose of their actions, as well as the goals humans are trying to reach through said actions. This could eventually aid Google’s bots in targeting potential consumers based on their actions online and in person.

However, it is important to note that such achievements are likely a long way off, as artificial intelligence is still very much in its infancy. However, it will be intriguing to see what other tasks artificial intelligence bots may be able to perform once they are deeply familiar with not only our actions, but our intentions as well.

Robots Taking Jobs?

Robot JapaneseThe UK’s next general election will most likely be dominated by the issue of immigration, one of the main catalysts for the fabled Brexit decision earlier this year.  Many British people have been afraid that a rising number of immigrants will take their jobs, yet it looks like immigrants aren’t where they should be focusing their fear.  According to a new report published by Oxford, it looks like robots are more likely than immigrants to steal jobs.

The report claims that technology and robotics will most likely replace 35% of existing jobs in the UK, with lower-paying jobs much more likely to be replaced than higher-paying jobs.  Unless this change can be fully understood and anticipated by businesses, policy-makers and educators, this could lead to a major problem with unemployment and under-employment.  However, the report also suggested that in London, 73% of businesses are planning on increasing their overall headcount to bring in new skills and roles.  Nonetheless, failure to put the correct educational elements in place to retrain people for these new jobs could lead to a massive issue in the future, not just in Britain but in the world.  

This echoes another era in world history that featured major technological change: the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th century.  New technology led to the development of factories, and much of the work that was once done by hand was replaced by machines.  It was accompanied by an agricultural revolution, where new technology replaced the work that farm hands traditionally did.  Many found their professions obsolete, leading to a huge amount of tension and resentment.  Even as many found themselves out of a job, many factories had a severe labor shortage.  So while the Industrial Revolution did make a lot of peoples’ jobs obsolete, it also created a lot of jobs, just jobs that required people to adapt.  This is what I think will most likely happen with technology in the modern era: people will have their jobs taken away by robots, but this new technology will also create new jobs and professions.  It’s just a matter of adapting to it.