Robots, Online Artificial Opponents or bots, Computer Board Game opponents, and Automated Vehicles are all projects that need Artificial Intelligence to work. Artificial Intelligence or AI is the intelligence of machines and the science behind it. The idea behind AI came from many brilliant mathematicians and philosophers including Alan Turing who stated “If a machine acts as intelligently as a human being, then it is as intelligent as a human being.” This translates into the creation on an intelligent agent. An intelligent agent is an entity whether physical or virtual that uses programming and human input to solve problems and act without human involvement. Artificial Intelligence has been around for years but it has not been until recently that we interact with an intelligent agent every day. Now AI is a part of everyday life for those in developed countries. There is no way to avoid it as it is so deeply intertwined with our culture rely on simple AIs to assist us in many situations.

The first well-known uses of AI were during World War II. Artificial Intelligence was used by the large full room computers such as the ENIAC to decipher coded messages by the enemies. They were used to quickly analyze settings for the Enigma machine in order to decipher its messages more quickly. It was not until after the war that it was announced computers had deciphered many of the codes. Soon after the war Alan Turing, who made major moves forward in the deciphering computers, announced the Turing test. It was designed to test a machines ability to display intelligence. The test proceeds this way: a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which try to appear human. All participants are placed in isolated locations. If the judge cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test.

In 1966 Joseph Weizenbaum created the first computer program to successfully pass the Turing test. The computer was code-named ELIZA and substituted key words in the users input to change the question and have the user respond. The technique is known is the psychiatry world as Rogerian Therapy. For example if the user input “my telephone is not working.” ELIZA would respond “Why is your telephone not working?” The system allowed Weizenbaum to skip creating a large database of human knowledge and instead he could concentrate on interaction. ELIZA was groundbreaking, being the first program to complete the test. However the illusion that ELIZA was human usually did not last long because of the flaws with the way the program worked. First of all if the computer could not come up with keywords a generic answer would usually be returned. One or two times after this event occurred, the user would be able to tell ELIZA was not a real person. Also if the user input a word in a meaning the computer did not understand a generic or even an incorrect response may be generated. These flaws made ELIZA a short-term human whose illusion was often dispelled fairly quickly. However the technology behind ELIZA can be found in applications we use every day such as Ask.com and Google.

The research of Artificial Intelligence went through phases of popularity in the 70s, 80s and early 90s. There were road bumps when millions dollars of research were wasted after changes in technology, after large super-computers were replaced by home desktop computers. However most of the declines in popularity were caused by the same issue, the lack of progress due to many issues with AI. The main issue is known as the qualification problem. It is the impossibly to list all meanings of words, requirements, conditions and connotations. That is just text based input alone. Some of the researchers promised visual, verbal and robotics development which due to the qualification problem was not possible. Another factor that relates to the qualification problem is the lack of the computer technology that is required. There was not enough memory to hold all the world’s knowledge and processors where not fast enough to analyze it all.

One major issue was where the research was directed. Research was funded by the government and corporations so it was directed to their interests. Early technology was adapted for business and military use instead of exploring new ideas. It allowed companies and the government to make advances in the technology they were looking for. That meant important discoveries were not made until later when more direct research towards abstract concepts happened. However now that the essential discoveries have occurred, great leaps forward in technology are seen.

Many milestones have been met in the creation of AI technology. In 2005 a team from Stanford University had created a vehicle which successfully travelled uncontrolled on an unrehearsed desert road. The challenge was issued by DARPA to create a car that could do drive by itself. It was part of their initiative to eliminate the need for many soldiers by 2015. The next step was a car that could negotiate urban streets. This time Carnegie Mellon University’s team finished first. This amazing feat was achieved in 2007. Currently military vehicles are being developed using the same technology. Automatic aiming technology has already been completed and is currently in testing. In 1997 Deep Blue beat the reigning chess champion Gary Kasparov in a 6 game series. The hardware used to control Deep Blue’s processes was extremely powerful for that time. The system is comparable now to a powerful desktop and was only running programming meant for chess.

Those accomplishments seem trivial and useless to the public. However there are real world applications of these milestone AI developments we use daily. Videogames are a perfect example. Many people indulge in video games and whenever you compete against an opponent in real-time you are facing technology similar to what is behind Deep Blue. Deep Blue used decision making processes to decide the best next move. Well written AI in computer games uses the same processes in order to decide to best way to defeat or aid you. The Mars Land Rovers use pre-programmed commands to complete research tasks because the distance from earth makes remote communication impossible. The discoveries the Land Rovers make affect the future of all of civilization. Most products are made on assembly lines using simple AIs to complete repetitive tasks. We may not realize it but AI is integrated into nearly everything we do now.

Despite the fact that we have integrated AI into our lives there is still much we can do. On the leading edge on technology is ASIMO. He is a world famous robot developed by Honda who is able to act in a similar manner to humans. The developers behind ASIMO continue to create technology and it becomes more and more impressive. Some amazing features behind ASIMO include: face recognition which it can use to address the person by name, recognition of moving objects and the ability to follow that object, sound distinction which includes the direction and source of the sound, and environmental recognition which allows it to safely move and traverse stairs. However the most amazing ability is probably ASIMO’s ability to learn. You are able to show ASIMO an object and it can tell you later what that object is and what other object with the same characteristics are. For example you could show ASIMO a toy Honda Civic and tell it the object is a toy car. Then you could show ASIMO a Mini Cooper and it would recognize it as a toy car. However if you showed ASIMO a toy airplane ASIMO would make a “judgment” (New ASIMO learning capabilities, YouTube) that it is not a toy car. See the YouTube video on the works cited page for another example. ASIMO’s technology allows it to act similarly to a baby, recognizing an item’s characteristics and confirming its identity. It is truly ground breaking work.

There are many possibilities on how AI may develop in the future. The first is a simple one, one of limits. It is possible that intelligence can not be artificially recreated. One day humanity may reach a limit in the recreation of intelligence and knowing when and where that will be is impossible. Two other possibilities are much more extensive and have been covered substantially by science fiction. The first of two is that we create an AI that eventually becomes sentient or aware of its surroundings. Whether that is a system like Skynet in Terminator or a robot it is hard to tell. Also it is possible that creating artificial sentient life will benefit civilization or harm it. In I, Robot starring Will Smith, a sentient mainframe computer controls a new line of robots in or to protect civilization. However the method used to protect humans is one of violent control. The only good robot is one from the new line that has become sentient himself. That robot is aware of the danger posed a by the others and tries to protect them. While fictional the scenario is possible although unlikely due to the unknown nature of true AI and how it will react. The other possibility is we create an AI that while not sentient its processing power is similar to a human’s. All these theories are just that, personal theories, and none of them dictate what will actually happen.

No matter how artificial intelligence research and development progresses it still has a major impact on society. AI is built into nearly every advanced software application we use. Even the word processor I am using has a minor AI that automatically corrects common spelling and graphics errors. Also nearly every product we buy is an either an intelligent agent or it was created by one. With that fact known it is impossible to deny the importance of Artificial Intelligence’s in our everyday. I believe that we have benefited from them immensely. It has opened the doors for us creatively, economically and socially. There is no way to avoid Artificial Intelligence in our daily lives despite the fact we do notice or acknowledge it.

Works Cited

Bresina, John L., Morris, Paul H. “Mixed-Initiative Planning in Space Mission Operations” AImagazine Summer 07: 75.
AI: Artificial Intelligence. Director, Steven Spielberg. DVD. Warner Bros, 2001.
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research: Volume 32
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/lazowska/cra/ai.html
http://cs.millersville.edu/~liffick/compchar.html
I, Robot. Director, Alex Proyas. DVD. 20th Century Fox, 2004.
www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18wSJs6LIc0&e (New ASIMO learning capabilities)
http://asimo.honda.com/