Artificial Intelligence aims to create computers capable of performing tasks that humans do with the help of their intelligence. The cutting edge intelligence enables us to understand higher level emotions and respond to these emotions in an appropriate manner. How easily we can be funny or loving or sexy ! But in terms of behaviour, these are very sophisticated behaviours.We expect the computers to show similar capabilities. That makes them ideal for interaction with us. To understand emotion, one has to understand the language. And language is the key to grasp knowledge.

There is progress in this field of developing AI. IBM’s Watson computer is able to play the TV game of Jeopardy ! which is broad task involving complicated natural language queries. Watson acquires knowledge by reading Wikipedia and other encyclopedias. Google’s self-driving car is an example of the application of AI. Apple’s SIRI and Google Now answer questions.

Ray Kurzweil, director engineering, Google has written the best seller The Singularity is Near. He predicts that by 2045, singularity will be achieved. This metaphor has been borrowed from physics. It means that by 2045, we will have our intelligence multiplied a billion fold by merging it with AI we are creating. That is a profound transformation. By 2029, it is predicted that computers will match human intelligence. They will pass the Turing Test. It means they will be indistinguishable from human intelligence. This does not mean they will compete with biological humans or displace them. They would rather enhance the biological beings. They already do so. The caveat is that technology is a double-edged sword, and must be used judiciously.

We can expect by 2030, technology will advance so much that for every passing year, one year will be added to human life by controlling genes and having nanobots in the blood stream to fight infections.

Machine learning or Artificial Intelligence is promising in three areas — health, core infrastructure and transport. One more area could be added — research.

There is increasing interest in AI because of e-commerce investment in India.

Many companies in the AI field have offerings bordering on analytics based on a database rather than on learning. There is a fine difference. Analytics draws on a database collected on the back of rules. Learning engines sift through unstructured data from unlikely sources to draw infrernces. Therefore, learning engine explores the text in the social media and cookies on the computer. The line between highly evolved business analytics and AI is thin. The yield should provide satisfactory result to the customers.

Jet Airways is experimenting with the assessing of the passengers based on their previous searches so as to offer the best hotel deals, fares, discounts and so on. The work is being done by Vizuary.Vizuary profiles 700 million different types of customers on a continuous basis. For an automobile company, AI should recognise emotion. A small camera captures the driving style of a test driver and his facial reactions. This data generates the most suitable car models for the customer.

Stephen Hawking, a distinguished physicist warns that the development of full-fledged AI could spell the end of the human race. It can make humanity dispensable. It poses existential crisis for the human race. Machines could be the masters and may treat humans  the way humans treat the animals today. Some do think that all this is exaggeration. We cannot abandon AI because it does not come with a 100 per cent goodness guarantee. Let there be a marriage of human and machine intelligence to get the grandest innovations. Human-like machine intelligence can leapfrog the time scale and can fix the global warming equation before we all get strangulated.