A friend at one of Silicon Valley’s tech giants said, “This is one of those times when, if you’re not scared and excited, you’re not paying attention.” We talked about AI and how it has already started changing the world in ways we can’t imagine. Don’t listen to what the tabloids say about killer robots like the ones in Terminator. Experts in artificial intelligence are already discussing the possibility that knowledge and feelings could exist outside the human body. How about robots that have been taught? They’ve shown up. Robots that have artificial intelligence? They are just around the corner. If you define intelligence as the ability to achieve complex goals, it’s impossible to think of a job that a robot won’t be able to do in the next few years, given the machine learning power we have today. Build a wall with bricks? How to fly a plane? Do you want to do surgery on your brain? Everything is based on physics, memory, and maths that is applied, none of which are beyond the skills of the current AI. If that’s true, why can’t I build a car? Cars are complicated, so data has already determined their basic shape, function, and surface. Algorithms have used this information to shape vehicles, and tools have given them form. They are moving calculations. In theory, AI should be much easier to make a new car than to write the next great American book or paint a modern masterpiece. So, do cars take notice? I was interested.
