Rishal Hurbans - Grokking Artificial Intelligence Algorithms

Rishal Hurbans

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ISBN: 9781617296185

To my parents, Pranil and Rekha. To making a positive difference.

This preface aims to describe the evolution of technology, our need to automate, and our responsibility to make ethical decisions while using artificial intelligence in building the future.

Throughout history, we have had a hunger to solve problems while reducing manual labor and human effort. We have always strived for survival and conservation of our energy through the development of tools and automation of tasks. Some may argue that we are beautiful minds that seek innovation through creative problem-solving or creative works of literature, music, and art, but this book wasnt written to discuss philosophical questions about our being. This is an overview of artificial intelligence (AI) approaches that can be harnessed to address real-world problems practically. We solve hard problems to make living easier, safer, healthier, more fulfilling, and more enjoyable. All the advancements that you see in history and around the world today, including AI, address the needs of individuals, communities, and nations.

To shape our future, we must understand some key milestones in our past. In many revolutions, human innovation changed the way we live, and shaped the way we interact with the world and the way we think about it. We continue to do this as we iterate and improve the tools we use, which open future possibilities (figure 0.1).

This short high-level material on history and philosophy is provided purely to establish a baseline understanding of technology and AI, and to spur thought on responsible decision-making when embarking on your projects.

Figure 0.1 A brief timeline of technological improvements in history

In the timeline figure, notice the compression of the milestones in more recent times. In the past 30 years, the most notable advancements have been in the improvement of microchips, the wide adoption of personal computers, the boom of networked devices, and the digitization of industries to break physical borders and connect the world. These are also the reasons that artificial intelligence has become a feasible and sensible area to pursue.

• The internet has connected the world and made it possible to collect mass amounts of data about almost anything.

• Advancements in computing hardware has given us the means to compute previously known algorithms using the massive amounts of data that we have collected, while discovering new algorithms along the way.

• Industries have seen a need to leverage data and algorithms to make better decisions, solve harder problems, offer better solutions, and optimize our lives as people have done since the beginning of humanity.

Although we tend to think of technological progress as linear, by examining our history, we find that it is more likely that our progress is and will be exponential (figure 0.2). Advancements in technology will move faster each year that goes by. New tools and techniques need to be learned, but problem solving fundamentals underpin everything.

This book includes foundation-level concepts that help solve hard problems, but it also aims to make learning the more complex concepts easier.

Figure 0.2 Perceived technological progress versus actual technological progress

Automation can be perceived differently by different people. For a technologist, automation may mean writing scripts that make software development, deployment, and distribution seamless and less error-prone. For an engineer, it may mean streamlining a factory line for more throughput or fewer defects. For a farmer, it may mean using tools to optimize the yield of crops through automatic tractors and irrigation systems. Automation is any solution that reduces the need for human energy to favor productivity or add superior value compared with what a manual intervention would have added (figure 0.3).

Figure 0.3 Manual processes versus automated processes

If we think about reasons not to automate, one prominent reason is simply that a person can do the task better, with less chance of failure and better accuracy, if the task requires intuition about several perspectives in a situation, when abstract creative thinking is required, or when understanding social interactions and the nature of people is important.

Nurses dont simply complete tasks, but connect with and take care of their patients. Studies show that the human interaction by caring people is a factor in the healing process. Teachers dont simply offload knowledge, but find creative ways to present knowledge, mentor, and guide students based on their ability, personality, and interests. That said, there is a place for automation through technology and a place for people. With the innovations of today, automation via technology will be a close companion to any occupation.