The lesson
The only light in the street
It is 5:30 in the morning. My pub is the only place with the light on in the whole street. The sign above my door says The Aisling. It is an Irish word. It means a dream. I sit down at the table by the window with you, and hand you a cup of tea. You are my first customer. You came for my Irish stew, and you will get it. But I am serving a second dish. That dish is artificial intelligence. Here is the menu. First, where AI begins. Then, how machines learn and create content. Then, machines that plan for themselves. Last, what it means when we give them hands. My promise is simple. By the last bowl, the technology news about AI will make sense to you.
What AI is, and what it is not
Let me clear the movies out of your head first. AI is not a small person living inside a machine, thinking and plotting. It is a machine that learns from examples. A publican learns the same way, from years at the fire. Rain is coming at six tonight? I know the after-work crowd will stay home, so I simmer fewer bowls. The morning delivery arrives? I sort it. The firm carrots go into my pot. The soft ones go into the rubbish bin. A regular says the stew yesterday was salty. I adjust, and today I cook a little better. That is the whole package. I predict, I classify, and I learn.
Now picture one straight line, and put every machine on it. At one end sit the rule followers. A calculator obeys its keys, and it never gets better at arithmetic. At the other end sit the learners. Every learner improves with experience. I live at the learning end. So does AI. Feed a machine enough examples, and it acts as if someone had written it a rule. The examples taught the learners how to predict, classify or group things.
You already live at the learning end
You already live at the learning end, whether you notice. Your phone unlocks at a glance. It learnt to read your face from millions of photos. Your map warns you of a jam ahead. It learnt from years of morning traffic. Your keyboard suggests your next word. It learnt from you. So when a company says its product uses AI, it nearly always means one thing. Many examples taught the product’s AI, and the AI adjusted itself until it became good.
Real AI, or movie AI?
Now let me test you. I will make three claims. After each one, ask yourself: real AI, or movie AI?
Claim one. Your phone unlocks the instant it sees your face. Real, or movie? I give you three seconds.
Pause here for three seconds.
Show the answer
… Real.
Claim two. An app writes a birthday poem for your Ah Ma in 10 seconds. Real, or movie? Three seconds.
Pause here for three seconds.
Show the answer
… Real.
Claim three. A robot feels hurt when you walk past its table. Real, or movie? Three seconds.
Pause here for three seconds.
Show the answer
… Movie.
Two of the three are learners with enough examples behind them. The third is a story about feelings. No matter how many examples you throw at it, the AI will never understand feelings.