The Future Is Here - How Artifical Intelligence Is Transforming And Deeply Impacting Our Lives

As kids, most of us have watched thrilling robot movies, in open-eyed wonder, blown away by the magical possibilities of Artificial Intelligence. Those robots from Terminator, Wall-E and I, Robot always felt like they were centuries away; but are they?

We live in an exciting time, where technology is advancing in leaps and bounds, in ways that were earlier unimaginable. Just this morning, Cortana created a reminder for us to submit this article, based on an email we had sent earlier. Last week, she made sure we left office in time to beat the traffic to get to the other end of the city for a meeting. She also tells us what music is playing in the background. All this makes us feel like we are just a step away from entering that magical world of sci-fi.

Neural networks, essential for deep learning AI technology, simulates how the human brain functions

These technological advancements have the potential to revolutionise human life, introduce a new paradigm shift. Last year alone humans generated 10 zettabytes of digital data, and from these enormous amounts of data, we can train deep neural networks to create intelligence that was hitherto unheard of. This is where we, as a generation, need to focus our attention - on technology which will help us democratise access to this intelligence. Because simply put, this is the future!

We need to use AI to empower humans and expand the limits of human abilities. Imagine what humans could do, if AI could function as an extension to the human brain. The possibilities are endless. There are various technological developments that are creating intelligence around basic human traits, each aimed at enhancing our lives. Let＊s look at some of them:

Vision processing through AI

It＊s the age of selfies, with posing that rivals those of the celebs. These selfies can then be measured for their celeb likeliness quotient online and the results, always flattering, are shared for the world to see, envy, and follow suit. Let＊s take this to the next level. Can you imagine if there was a way whereby we could understand images 每 look at an image and detect faces, predict the age and gender, and then find similarities to other faces, look for objects, animals and so on? Besides the fun and flatter factor, this can also be used to increase security and diagnose medical conditions remotely. We are currently developing the cutting-edge technology that is already making all of this possible.

Advancements in speech recognition through AI

Empathy, cheer, joy, each of these are apparent in the intonations in speech and that tug at the heartstrings connects humans emotionally. Speech, and the accompanying emotions, are best used by storytellers and singers. The really gifted ones know how to use their voice to mesmerise listeners and transport them to another world. Soon all of this could be customised at your fingertips, thanks to the technological developments in today＊s world. Today, we have technology that uses AI to enable speech and understand dozens of languages and accents, technology that can detect and imbibe emotions in speech, technology that ensures ※Congratulations§ is said in a joyous cheerful voice, and ※I am sorry§ has the right mix of contrite and considerate.

Language barriers torn down by AI

The premise of many a comic scene, semantics play a very important role in our daily lives. Language understanding technologies can now assign meaning to words, and take actions based on this semantic understanding. It can understand that ※switch off the lights§, ※shut the lights§ and ※turn down the lights§ mean the same thing. AI can now also take context into account and understand ※jam§ as food and not as traffic jam in the sentence ※I will go buy some jam§. Language understanding models go beyond the barriers of traditional human language and blur the lines between different languages like French, English or even Klingon!

Knowledge democratisation through AI

A couple of decades ago, if one needed a recipe, out would come the pile of handwritten notes and recipe books and magazines; and if one was lucky, the recipe would be found, often having taken up the better part of the day. Cut to today 每 search engines help you to discover answers to how much Rs. 2000 is worth in Japan, to seeking help in planning an outdoor party, to the perfect recipes for macaroons 每 the power of AI can bring all the knowledge in the world, right to your fingertips. These days search engines also have a vast and interconnected graph of all possible entities in the world, which allows them to answer questions like how tall Beyonc谷 is, what her latest songs are, who she is married to and all the latest news about her husband.

No discussion on AI is complete without mentioning bots. ＆Bot＊ is the new buzz word and the bot frenzy is taking over the tech world. Ever increasing internet penetration on mobile devices and unprecedented growth on messaging apps like WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger have paved the way for bots. With today＊s messaging ecosystem, chatting with a bot is the most natural way for us to do things like book air tickets or make dinner reservations. We are at the brink of a world where our primary mode of interaction will be natural conversation, and millions of bots will spring up and help us get stuff done while we chat with them.

It is truly exciting to be a part of this new wave of AI and seeing the effect of conversations as a paradigm. The next couple of years will show the tremendous potential that AI has in empowering humans, and lay the foundation for a new era in computing.

After that, who knows? We will dream of something else, but wait, may be AI powered bots can even do that!

The authors of this article are: Sundar Srinivasan 每 General Manager, Microsoft India Engineering; Tulasi Menon 每 Program Manager, Microsoft India R & D Pvt Ltd; Puneet Agrawal 每 Senior Software Engineer Manager, Microsoft India R & D Pvt Ltd

Cover image credit: Techcrunch