The Future is Happening Now …

The Future is Happening Now …

Last week’s column, titled “The Future is Coming,” previewed innovative technologies poised to enter the marketplace with the promise of making our life easier and more productive. A  more apt title may be the one for today’s column, “The Future is Happening Now.” While we, as consumers, think of technology as the devices and gadgets we see and use everyday, many of the technological advances changing our world happen behind the scenes.

I just finished reading Dan Brown’s 2017 best seller, Origins. While the book itself is rather formulaic, the story features a character named Winston, a very sophisticated AI (artificial intelligence) entity that converses with the protagonist as if it were human. Winston has a voice, communicates though headsets and smart phones, and passes the Turing Test —  a test developed in 1950 by the computer scientist Alan Turing that determines if a computer is indistinguishable from a human. The book postulates (spoiler alert) that the proliferation of personal technology is causing humans to evolve into a new and better species co-joined with technology. While this premise seems far fetched, there are many things happening today in the realm of AI that are fascinating, and maybe more than a little frightening.

In layperson’s terms, a computer programmed for artificial intelligence can interpret, analyze and learn from external information (data), and use what it learns to achieve specific goals and guide future performance. An example is how Google uses AI to rank the results of searches. In the past human operators decided the order of search results. Humans are not always objective and the top results were not always of the highest quality. Google has since replaced the human factor with AI that can more accurately select content for the ranking of search results. These AI based rankings are constantly changing as the AI learns from how users react to the search results. If the result that is third on the list gets more clicks than the results listed first and second, the AI code will change the order and bump number three to the top of the list.

Facebook is very close mouthed about the technology behind its platform, but company officials often cite the use of AI in monitoring community standards and weeding out unsavory, hateful and profane postings. Facebook still uses human moderators to screen and remove offensive material, but these moderators only act when a post is flagged by other users. AI is being deployed to identify potentially offensive material, and even fake news before it is flagged by users. Facebook and other social media apps like Instagram and Twitter also use AI to select the feeds that you see in your timeline. Every post you expand, every search you make, is used by the AI to learn your likes and dislikes and tailor your experience.

What about all the advertisements you see when you visit social media websites. How does the website decide what advertisement to show you, and why? How many times have you done a web search for a particular product, only to find ads for the same or similar product pop up next time you log on to Facebook or some other website. It is called programmatic advertising, and it is the dominate form of digital advertising on the web. Programmatic advertising uses AI to profile visitors to websites and apps, and then use that information to deliver selected ads across a variety of platforms.

Financial institutions use AI as gatekeepers to protect customers from potential fraud. Did you ever get a text or email notification that possible fraud was detected on your credit card? You can thank AI for watching over your account and flagging an “out of the ordinary”.  transaction.

AI is also found in apps on our smart phones that we use on a daily basis. Navigation apps such as Google and Apple Maps us AI to determine the best routes based on the interpretation of current, real-time traffic data. Camera apps with a portrait mode uses AI to select and blur the background, change the lighting and determine the main subject.

While artificial intelligence had moved out of its infancy, it still has a long way to go before it produces entities such as Winston that can converse and interact with us as if they were human. We are living in an evolving future full of promise and trepidation. OnMouseClick was conceived to help TR Times readers learn how to use everyday software. Over the years the column evolved to keep pace with an increasingly knowledgable readership and advances in technology. In 2019 my goal is to alert readers to the ever changing trends in technology and how they affect our lives.