The vast list of artificial intelligence applications continually increases as researchers, technologists, and scientists try to leverage computing power to gain competitive edges over the more slowly adopting set. Today I want to traipse across the American business and tech landscape and present a few of the new and hopefully intriguing upgrades of these mostly familiar devices and services being brought into the 21st century via AI.

First a quick overview of the concept of AI and where its come from over the past years and decades. Earlier writings comingled two phrases to identify the technology: artificial intelligence, which has become the well-known marketable way to talk about the tech, and computational intelligence, which might be useful amongst a group of AIerr, CI?subject matter experts, but doesnt carry the cachet of its more widely accepted phrase. For anyone who uses either phrase, its generally understood to refer to some sort of machine-based intelligence. Natural intelligence is the way to describe we humans intellect. Depending on ones level, there are other ways to describe intelligence: lacking, or too good for ones own good come to mind, for example.

Machines that perform AI functions are programmed to take in the various and sundried inputs of their surrounding environment, analyze the data, and perform some action that, when it all works, tends to be the best action considering those inputs. From a textbook level of perspective, you might see natural intelligence described similarly. Were strolling down Main Street about to reach an intersection. We take in sights, sounds, all sorts of information and inputs. Then, we decide whether to wait or continue. Assuming de minimis human intelligence, the action we take will have maximized survival first, pace and progress, too, and other complex results all based on a process of intelligent decision-making.

The foundational descriptions and ideas about AI go back around 20 to 25 years for most purposes of contemporary discussion, though I and others in the past have even gone way back to the nineteenth century with Shelleys Frankenstein to demonstrate a variant of the two-word phrase, Dr. Frankensteins monster displaying artificial intelligence in this sense. We might agree that from whence it came, and toward where AI is headed, the descriptive thread woven throughout is that something other than a sentient being considers information before taking some action. That rather generic description gives a wide range to what parts of modern-day living may benefit from AI technologies.

You reap those benefits everyday already. Google searches, Amazon shopping, Netflix, Hulu, or any streaming platform. Youre really enveloped in the AI landscape at home, work, and even simply being out and about in your community. Anything, for example, that presents as a Smart [Thing] implicates AI. Also, you have likely enjoyed AIs functionality for longer than you might at first think. Remember the Ken Jennings Jeopardy! era? IBMs Watson computer was, essentially, an AI device earning millions of viewers a dozen years ago. If youve picked up a U.S. passport during the past 15 or so years, the facial recognition pieces of the process were driven by AI in ways that may be considered intrusive, but definitely bolster national security as you can imagine. The ethics of AI is an entirely different, albeit important and ongoing, discussion.

To me, biased as I can be about tech advances, nearly everything that incorporates artificial intelligence is intriguing or even exciting. The future altogether, generally, drums up the same sentiments, though Ill admit that over time I catch myself going into the but in my day mode such that I might pooh-pooh something new and improved. Oftentimes I get schooled. For a year Ive had a barely functioning thermostat that I knew needed replacement. I resisted the continual advice to get a smart one. I finally buckled, and to my surprise and delight, and chagrin, Ive truly enjoyed this tiny component of living a more comfortable life. But wait theres more.

Forget room temps, how about AI functionality that senses your emotion? Consider a sales team that, whether due to the pandemic or just the new way of doing business, meets new clients via Zoom or some other video conferencing application. After a pitch meeting, where frankly both sides protect their interests by putting on a show of sorts, the team can analyze the call and see where hot issues garnered certain emotional reactions. Again, Im passing on the ethical dilemmas evident in the tech.

Maybe more agreeable, scientists are developing a fascinating concept: AI colonialism. In New Zealand researchers are trying to reverse the disproportionately laden negative effects of colonialism on minorities. Their angle? The AI functions to retain and increase the Mori language. Contra the effects of human intelligence colonialismentering a political division from afar and imposing foreign ways on its peopleAI colonialism is meant to create the opposite effects. Data, its proponents say, is the last realm of colonialism.

Within infrastructure, smart highways are on the horizon and so some degrees in action already. Autonomous vehicles will require this marriage of roadways and tech, but the applications are nearer and wider, still. In Sweden, road surfaces are being replaced with underlying charging capabilities similar to contactless charging iPhones. Electric vehicles charge as they travel. In the U.S. some metropolitan areas are experimenting with smart roadways such that depending on traffic flows, emergencies and other factors, lanes are reassigned by signage or powered barricades.

Nary is the industry or sector immune from these developments. From agriculture to litigation AI is being enveloped, or it will. When we take time to also consider the ethical implications, and they are in fact sound, it becomes a genuinely exciting time to see innovations come to life. Itd be smart of you to welcome these developments, or at least give them a chance.

Ed is a professor of cybersecurity, an attorney, and a trained ethicist. Reach him at edzugeresq@gmail.com.

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LEFT TO MY OWN DEVICES: Be smart. Welcome new artificial intelligence solutions. - Times Tribune of Corbin