The idea of intelligent robots is not new, it was mentioned BC in Greek mythology.
There is also a Chinese legend written in the tenth century BC that claims the presence of an intelligent robot in the council of Mu, the fifth king of the Chinese Zhou dynasty. It was the invention of a scientist called “Yan Shi”, where this robot can simulate a human in several functions, such as: walking And talk and sing!
This movement and ambition continued through successive centuries. For example, in the ninth century, the father of chemistry, Jabir ibn Hayyan, presented the “Arab alchemical theory of formation,” which centers on the artificial simulation of creatures, including human capabilities and functions.
In the thirteenth century, Ismail Al-Jazari invented the “floating orchestra”, which is the first programmable and automatically operated instrument.
In the 17th century, Blaise Pascal invented the first digital calculator.
Gottfried Leibniz also studied previous theories and inventions, such as the Pascal machine and the Zerga, an Arabic astronomical instrument, to the development of the binary counting system, which enabled him to simulate logical thinking to produce arguments and conclusions automatically.
In the mid-twentieth century, the first substantial work in the field of artificial intelligence was accomplished by British logician and computer pioneer Alan Turing.
The Czechoslovak writer, Karl Chapek, was the first to introduce the word “robot” into the modern English language through his play that was shown in London in 1923 AD. The workshop that was held at Dartmouth College in America in 1956 AD is considered the birth of artificial intelligence research within the fields of computer science. The participants in this workshop see that they are the founders and pioneers of modern artificial intelligence, as they were able, with their ambitious vision, which aims to produce machines capable of doing any work that humans can do, within twenty years, to attract the attention of individuals and governments, and received generous support during the fifties and sixties of the last century. However, due to the difficulties that accompanied the research and development work, such as limited data and technical capabilities, the researchers were unable to achieve their goals at the time, and concluded disappointing results compared to that exaggerated vision, which led to the reluctance of Western governments to continue support during the seventies of the last century, which resulted in About what is known as “the winter of artificial intelligence,” referring to the fading of its luster and the lack of efforts expended in it.
With the beginning of the eighties of the last century, artificial intelligence returned to the fore once more, following taking other directions that revolved around the semantic representation of knowledge to facilitate interpretation and analysis, and then build decisions regarding it, which led to the emergence of the so-called expert systems. After that, attention shifted from west to east, specifically in Japan, following Waseda University succeeded in manufacturing the first fully-integrated robot with the ability to walk, talk and move things, prompting parties and investors to support artificial intelligence research once more with billions of dollars; But by the late 1980s, they were disappointed and decided to withdraw support and funding, so that winter once once more fell on AI.
With the rapid advancement of devices and technical capabilities, the spread of the use of the Internet, the abundance of big data, the development of algorithms and tools for analysis and decision-making, and the maturity of the machine’s connection with other sciences such as logic, thinking and arithmetic, investment and interest in artificial intelligence flourished once more at the beginning of the twenty-first century, and its techniques began to penetrate into various fields, such as education, health, industry and services, and its luster shone with the increasing number of governments and major technology companies competing in its field; However, challenges are still a prelude to these successes. Will the advocates of artificial intelligence succeed this time in overcoming it and achieving the vision of the founders that they set more than sixty years ago!
Perhaps you are wondering here, dear reader, regarding the discrepancy between what we hear from time to time regarding artificial intelligence technologies and products? First, I tell you, we must agree that artificial intelligence, even if its spark began before Christ, is still a vast field for development and improvement, and the expectations attached to it are much greater than what it has reached! The other thing is, we must define artificial intelligence so that we can judge whether this product or that technology is in its field? The Oxford Dictionary defines “artificial intelligence” as “the theory and development of computer systems in order to be able to perform tasks that require human intelligence.”
This also makes us wonder what we mean here by human intelligence? Is it the ability to solve complex mathematical problems? Or the art of painting? Or is it emotional intelligence? Or the ability to understand and think abstractly? If we go back to the Oxford Dictionary, we will find that the definition of “intelligence” is “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills”. From here we realize the reason for that disparity that tells of complex and simplified products and solutions that all came out of the womb of artificial intelligence!
Altogether, AI applications can be divided into three types:
1 – Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI): These are applications to achieve a specific goal, according to a pre-defined task, and in a specific field, such as: voice or facial recognition, autonomous driving, and blocking spam emails.
2 – Artificial General Intelligence (AGI): These are applications that have the ability to think, understand and learn, such as the human mind, and apply their intelligence to solve complex and renewable problems in a variety of fields. Today, it represents an existing challenge that research centers and leading technology companies have not yet been able to achieve any successful applications of this kind.
3 – Artificial Super-Intelligence (ASI): These are applications that are expected to exceed the ability of humans to understand and think, and thus unpredictable decisions that can be made. Although this type is still theoretical, there are warnings of its consequences and danger issued by prominent figures, such as physicist Stephen Hawking and businessman Elon Musk, while others believe that this type is nothing more than science fiction that will not reach the ground!
By the way, whoever wants to taste “Margouk” using artificial intelligence techniques can use one of the cooking robots, such as Samsung’s Bot Chef or Moley Robotic Kitchen; For a luxurious and smart Saudi meal!
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