Future of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science which aims at building machines that can think, feel and take decisions just like humans do. Before discussing its future prospects, let's understand exactly what artificial Intelligence is all about.

Computers have made our lives very easy. They can perform tasks at the speed of one click which we humans would take hours to do. On top of that they are much more efficient than humans, and unlike humans, never feel exhausted. However, they lack the potential to make a complex decision, especially pertaining to a real world problem. Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that makes the computers capable enough to perform complex tasks, i.e. tasks that require reasoning and intelligence, and understand the real life situations based on experience, just like humans do. Artificial intelligence is a very broad field and includes not just computers but all the intelligent machines.

Current Usage
There are many applications of artificial intelligence at present. Some of them have been listed here.

• Banks and other financial institutions rely on intelligent software, which provide accurate analysis of the data and helps make predictions based upon that data.
• Stocks and commodities are being traded without any human interference - all thanks to the intelligent systems.
• Artificial intelligence is used for weather forecasting.
• It is used by airlines to keep a check on its system.
• Robotics is the greatest success story, in the field of artificial intelligence. Spacecrafts are sent by NASA and other space organizations into space, which are completely manned by robots. Even some manufacturing processes are now being completely undertaken by robots. Robots are being used in industrial processes, that are dangerous to human beings, such as in nuclear power plants.
• Usage of artificial intelligence is quite evident in various speech recognition systems, such as IBM ViaVoice software and Windows Vista.

Future Usage
What is the future of artificial intelligence? Can machines ever be as thoughtful, self-aware and intelligent as human beings? The answer to both these questions is inter-related.

Artificial intelligence in the future will churn out machines and computers, which are much more sophisticated than the ones that we have today. For example, the speech recognition systems that we see today, will become more sophisticated and it is expected that they will reach the human performance levels in the future. It is also believed that they will be able to communicate with human beings, using both text and voice, in unstructured English in the coming few years. However, will artificial intelligence be able to create machines that are self-aware and even more intelligent than human beings - is a question that nobody has an answer to. Also, even if this is possible, how much time it is going to take, cannot be predicted at present.

It is expected that in the future, such machines will be developed, which have basic common sense, similar to human beings, although pertaining to specific areas only. It is also expected that the human mind functions, such as learning by experience, learning by rehearsal, cognition and perception will also be performed by future intelligent machines. In fact, research and experiments are being conducted to recreate the human brain. CCortex , a project by Artificial Development Inc., California, and Swiss government's IBM sponsored Blue Brain Project, are two main ventures, whose goal is to simulate the human brain. Whether this brain will have human consciousness incorporated in it - there is still no answer for that.

It is expected that the robots in future, will take on everybody's work. Whether it is office work or the work at home, robots will accomplish it even more faster and efficiently than human beings. So if somebody's falling ill, they can obtain a robot nurse who will give periodic medicines to them. How much care, concern and empathy the robot nurse will have towards the patient is anybody's guess!

Thus, artificial intelligence is still in its infancy, and its future depends upon the capability of the scientists to crack the puzzle of the human mind. Will they be able to solve "the problem of the mind" and incorporate all the human, mental, emotional qualities in the machines? Let's wait and watch!