Senior writer for wired magazine, tom simonite, to talk Artificial Intelligence in the workplace. Tom simonite, what is host and joining us this morning from san francisco, Senior Writer for wired magazine, tom simonite, to talk about Artificial Intelligence in the workplace. Tom simonite, what is Artificial Intelligence . Lately. It covers a lot of things. Artificial intelligence is area of science and engineering that is all computers able to do the kind of things human onsist do, look around at the world and make sense of it. Solve problems within themselves, pick up new skills use the experience they had in the past to solve new problems in the future. The main ways f that people build systems is using technique called machine term you mighter hear and that is really kind of a ple, you basically take bunch of example data and use that to show the software what do. Needs to now weve all been exposed to Artificial Intelligence programs movies and t. V. Shows that are like humans and can, you around and lead their own independent lives. And the reality of technology is a long way short of that, the systems you build today, they can be smart, but in a very focused, narrow way, so we can build these wedges of to do one thing pretty well and great example of pocket today nes is that you can talk to your smart phone and it will words and your transcribe them to speech, thanks to receipt advances in very e learning that is accurate now. That system really cant do anything else, it is very thing. Host sometimes can recognize your voice. Guest that is true. People with nonstandard accents certainly have problems and be e are still wrinkles to fixed. Host tom simonite, when did technology begin, how has t evolved and what is the future . Guest okay. Ell, it began a long time ago, the field and term Artificial Intelligence began in the 50s seen ou know, weve progress since then, but were a long way short of Walking Around themselves. The reason were hearing a lot about it now, over the last five years, theres really been a the power vement in of machine learning, technique where you take a bunch of data train software. And that has led to some very accuracy of in speech recognition, as we just Image Recognition and gooing and he will apple ill let you search personal photos for terms like dog, tree thing. Ch, that kind of and so, yeah, recent improve nment technique led to impressive scientific results, impressive new Business Applications of technology, as well, and out here on the west coast, there is a huge amount of invested into this technology now. Host and why, what is the hope . What is the goal of investing and how much money are we talking about . Caller that is a good question. Mean, if you add up the Big Companies and the venture talking figures in the billions over the last few take one example, google paid around 600 million u. K. Based Artificial IntelligenceCompany Called deep years ago. This is a big bet. Why are they making it . I guess because computers so much for us and it is pretty clear they could do a more if they were smarter. So, there are all kinds of applications for this. The thing m kind of, you might notice everyday, just improveing and targeting dvertisement would make a big difference to the bottom line of the companies, some are more can formational and so you this about robotics and could lead us to having drones or household robots smart enough navigate around the messy front room in your house or help kind th the chores, that of thing. Probably most of us have been exposed to voice assistance, can talk to siri, or alexa, and im sure weve seen things are limited, in fact, back to my earlier point, systems ong way from that have independent existence. More they et are going to allow all of us to guess, in less time, i and businesses to do more things people like doing manual work. Host yeah, what about that . A. I. In the workplace and as you were talking, we were viewers an image of a robot making a pizza. Mean, how do we know what jobs will be replaced by Artificial Intelligence . What are the numbers saying . To bring the reat numbers. He numbers are not suggest iing the machines, taking jobs away from people. Point of tually a argument among economists and who think about this. So on the one hand, we are more the Technology Get powerful and you can certainly make the argument that that can replace people with machines. On the other hand, if that was happen, you would expect businesses to be becoming more productive, because they more with technology and the economic figures really dont show that f. We look to past, there are examples where bringing in machines to people doesnt actually reduce employment and here is that the atm, now the atm directly people sitting behind counter of the bank handing out money. Et, when they were introduced and they were rapidly adopted by many banks, they are extremely the number of Bank Employees in the country went it freed wn, because banks to open more branches and expand their businesses in other ways. So, i am not taking a side here, the fence, i think there are good reasons to think that more technology in workplace doesnt have to mean fewer people. Side,what about the other though, folks like elon musk, ho told governors at a recent gathering in rhode island that a. Ipassport is fundamental risk for human civilization and i dont think people fully said he has at, he access to cuttingedge a. I. Is the gy and it scariest problem. Elon musk h, well, certainly does have access to one ngedge technology, no is disputing that, there is a on exo stential. Wrote about musks remarks to the governors. When i spoke to other people ai, and spent more time on it than elon, there was disappointment because this idea that, you future, e point in the super Intelligent Machines will perhaps harm humanity, that is a long way from where we are today. Today we have systems that can know, it is you not generalized intelligence that can take on multiple tasks. So, it is quite hard to actu debate have a proper about that because its just so far in the future, its very speculative. I spoke to researchers who, not ai, but think about the impact on society and they kind on musks remarks as of missed opportunity. He had a few minutes in front of leaders in theul u. S. To talk about the technology, which is going to otentially transform every aspect of our lives and he chose to direct it on faroff future really, we hich we can talk about it right now, but cant do much. In the field think we should be thinking more about questions of employment, did that, as well, to give him credit. And questions what about when is using these technologies for surveillance other areas and like that. Host lets hear what the viewers have to say, your and comments here on Artificial Intelligence in the workplace. John, eastern north carolina, an independent. Youre up first. In er yes, yes, tom, back working , 98, i was with a group called spartan, blackwater, with they were into computers. We were sitting around throwing ideas around. Point, the cloud was just the idea of the cloud was just come in to existence. And i had a cousin that went from unc a math degree chapel hill and she told me in worked 60s which she for iberostar google is just like a large number, like it was a name that people were messing around with that were athematicians, the Largest Forum of number they had come up with a name. We tossed around an idea algorithm rd search that would take the is and a and small words out of a statement you see on a ebsite and it would try to prioritize the most important words and then it would search what was then the cloud that would actually andritize and pull up sites that is how google got started, spartan to nt from new york and a group of programmers, two years before started working n wordsearch algorithms that would apply to what was available from the internet and came up with and one of his partners came up, they ford and t of stan perfected the word search i hadthm, google, i think a partial hand in naming google. Any tom simonite, thoughts . Guest john, what a great story, sharing it. Can yeah, we think of google as solved, using for years now. How you get of computers to understand languages is one of the Artificial Intelligence. Hile search works pretty good and speaker recognition is not ad either, translation is getting better. Computers still have literacy problem, you know, describes as illiterate, they cant read a sentence or inject paragraph of text and get a meaning of it. Eople that work in the field know that is one of the questions hanging over them, if you want machines and we dont know right now. Host what happened with facebook recently and the research they were doing and the had, the program to understand language and create own language and controversy that surrounded that . Guest yes, earlier in the month saw a flurry of alarming headlines about facebook Artificial Intelligence labs that got out of control and how panicked ists there and had to shut down really kind of hollywood imagery and that isnt what happened. Of, eality of this is kind i not quiet. His was research on pieces of software that are called chat box, they can generate, write have a backnces and and forth conversation with a person or each other in a very and they were created and programmed to do one which was play this game where you have to another th your person, a partner, and trade and books ms, hats and balls. This was a test of a idea and so ing these chat box could play simple game and come up with sentences like, i will swap two books for one ball and they could randomly try things and then see what works worked, they ng told it more. Initially, they had programs with each other and they were experimenting back and orth and playing a game and then they started to come up with sentences that didnt make sense. The just kind of repeated same word over and over and just kind of garbage, really. Was hat wasnt scary, that actually failure, the experiment that st hadnt worked at point. Of initial failure experiment was kind of cast as of greedy kind f almost benevolent accident and that really isnt what happened. Host william, buffalo new york, question or your comment. Caller i guess where im coming from seem like a bit of a curveball for you, similar to as you were discussing the side effects on the general populous, we saw what innovations did to the blue collar sector about 30 years ago that had a enerational effect in communities, now we see technology is coming into the sure collar sector, im you are well aware, there is software that can write articles weve seen it with baseball baseball. This, e of a approach to yes, it could be good for these thingslizing to do things for us. How from your perspective can as people actually utilize thanksgiving to our having droves ot of surplus population we have to figure out what to do with . Important , really issues, william. Dont have a great solution for you. Youre right, i think we as with thised to engage and in some ways were already behind on engaging with previous technological shifts in how the economy works. Probably me people what is happening theer and maybe that raises stakes even more. See in countries and around the world that overnment and policymakers are and ing more in this topic the white house organized workshops around the country policymakers and experts in Artificial Intelligence technology came together and things. Ed all types of employment was one of them, policing and other things, and think we need to engage in this as much as about it at think every level. Host to jack next in fort democrat. As, a caller hi. I want to compliment you on the yall had last week on a bf it wants to build etector for science, i thought that was very indepth necessary as way to at i see clear out this fake news and of clean up the sources of information. Tie that to another project that i hope is under is to use a. I. Validate our climate science. Debate in rank or over consensus and what is effect of humans on the planets bios fear, i think a. I. Would play a crucial role in out all the ear skeptical fake arguments that i think incorporate awayed the web. Host okay. Tom simonite. Guest thanks very much. Yes. Written by my colleague about the project of darpa. Darpa is the advanced research the pentagon, they are looking into this idea of having a. I. Systems detect anomalies in science and scientific arguments that are incorrect, particularly using that on scientific information about that f social trends and kind of thing. T is good news and bad news on this point you raise. The good news, it is becoming a. I. Is a great help to scientists, were seeing that system that can kind of learn about the structure of molecules and ones. Te new i read about Research Last year where scientist could go to a program and say, i want that is halfway would usepirin and it chemistry to say, we could try this. T will accelerate development of new medicines. The value is that it is not news, it is reality that i assume that e can everyone is going to agree with what these systems come up with. So, just because i create a piece of software that analyzes of information and says, look, this is the way we should nterpret it, you know, human nature being what it is, im sure that will be plenty of so, you sagree and know, ending debate about that is on us, not the computer, see what i mean . Host ringwood, new jersey, watching on the line for republicans, youre on the air. Caller yes, thank you for my call. Im an accounting instructor, lso cpa, ive been in accounting instructor for 20 years at a State University and the Educational Forum that there is definitely on Artificial Intelligence, especially the phone, i the cell think it creates more of a one lifestyle and also i think that from a student creates t, it has tendency for students not to utilize longterm permanent memory. Let me give you an example, thinking of one class that i teach normally every semester, class i teach annuity accountingtermediate class. I find tendency for students to cell phones to put the annuity formula into cell phone longterm their permanent memory. And since that time, ive really cell phones and computers into the classroom the studentsl like arent utilizing their brains, dependent uponly some onedimensional screen to store everything for them. Is a dangerous way become. Ety to host tom simonite, do you have thoughts on that . Guest yeah, really interesting issue. By now, we have evidence that are easily distracted and smart phones and things like that distract us easily. And i believe also research out people do rely less on memorizing facts now hat they know they can turn to google. There are experiences where that is harmful, the classroom might one of them. Maybe if your brain is not devoting energy to storing hopefully we can use it for something else, maybe develop your abstract reasoning or that kind of thing, certainly something to think about. Of how humans and machines Work Together is a very informed one and one that is being investigated more and more by academic researchers and an industry, as well, so just last month in fact, google spun off a initiative around trying to understand how humans systems can Work Together. Yeah, its a big question, i think it is great that more researchers are working on it and hopefully we an figure out some answers to w it to continue to host lee, an independent. Caller i have Software ManagementN Organization at red stone engineering ware directorate and dr. Minsby of mit had taken leave and was teaching Artificial Intelligence of se at the University Alabama in huntsville, and i talked t course and he bout a program that he had designed that was called pogo. He this would answer any mathematical problem taken kids in boston that were considered illiterate and they took his pogo, cial intelligence and they were able to advance in average ahead of any student in the Boston School area. Happened wonder what o dr. Minski and study in Artificial Intelligence, maybe you know . Marvin minski, an incredible scientist to mit, ost of his life and pioneer in the field, he died i believe in 2015, or maybe last year. Have a huge ues to influence on the field today, laid the groundwork for a lot of and that goes on today frequently referenced in new work. And that work on education is interesting and certainly you know that is kind of a torch being carried forward by people a. I. Community today. Ost of us can understand how having a personalized Educational Program developed oneonone computer will be ideal, you know, the nature of the world is not that. One can have ut, if software is involved in assessing your work or monitoring your work, you can enerate that kind of personalized material for every there are certainly Companies Looking at that and i think promising results. Host couple minutes left here. Susan in texas, republican. Caller ive been reading about quantum computing, think ionizing how we about reality. Im a nontechnical person, but t is really a very simple concept. Apparently ibm and other working on ave been this for years, what im wondering, why arent more delving into this everywhere . For example, when i put the word elon musk and paired with the ord quantum computing on google, nothing came up. Host tom simonite . Quantum compute suggest something i write about briefly,equently, very very small scale, you know, quantum han atom, physics is very important in understanding how physical operate. And where it can happen. You can exploit that to create a computer, which the says would be incredibly owerful, many more times more powerful than the Super Computers we have today there is sa