Artificial Intelligence
You will surely have heard of Artificial Intelligence by now. Many people think of it as something really high-tech, futuristic and not really relevant to them. The likelihood is, by the time you are reading this, you have already encountered several forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your day already, from your phone unlocking as it recognises your face and Alexa replying to you with today’s weather forecast.
Artificial Intelligence is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is used to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind.
In general, AI systems work by consuming and using large amounts of labelled training data. This data is then analysed to look for similarities and patterns, and then the computer uses these patterns to make predictions about future events/samples. This is how chatbots on websites can produce life-like conversations by having lots of previous data to produce responses to conversations.
Common everyday examples include:
- Email spam filter
- Checking for fraud in your bank account
- Netflix / Spotify recommendations
- Navigation apps
Take a look at these two videos and then complete the activities
Activity 1: Why is artificial intelligence important?
Download activity 1 and consider why technology in general is important.
Watch this short video on AI Basics
Activity 2: What are the disadvantages of artificial intelligence?
Download activity 2 and consider some of the disadvantages (and concerns) relating to AI.
Let's hear from someone working in the sector
Artificial intelligence is not only affecting industries like business and healthcare. It was once considered by many that there were certain areas that a machine could not perform in compared to a human. For many, the ultimate machine test was having a computer to compete in games such as chess and ‘Go’.
The film Alphago looks at engineers’ attempts to make a machine that can beat a world champion
Spoiler alert - it does!
Many people also thought that creativity was something a machine was not capable of. However, we now see it playing an increasing role in the creative industries. The rate at which AI is creating designs and how accessible it is, is astonishing.
Activity 3: AI is an additional tool that artists can use to explore new creative territory. Take a look at this site to see how it can turn even the worst drawing into something decent! https://www.autodraw.com/
The impact of AI in design is potentially revolutionary.
The following video from Paul Russell – Design teacher at Loughborough University, runs through two AI programs to show how you could create designs using text prompts and some simple visuals.
As you saw, the potential is huge. As someone described it, AI design approaches like Midjourney are like a Google image search for images that don’t even exist until you search for them.
Another similar product is https://www.vizcom.ai/
Activity 4: What is your view/prediction of the future of design?
Download activity 4 and comment on how the creative industries may be affected in the future by AI.
Activity 5
Take a look at these suggestions of things to try related to AI. https://experiments.withgoogle.com/collection/ai e.g. it’s easy to see how a machine can take some of the mundane tasks away from humans – see https://experiments.withgoogle.com/tiny-sorter
Now, try to think of 6 tasks that AI could be used for in a similar situation. Consider a range of areas such as manufacturing, healthcare etc.
Extension Activities
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Have a go at machine learning by training your computer to distinguish between things such as poses and sounds. https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/train Your previous sorter task was produced using this. See how easy it is to train it and produce some useful code that could be used to do something pretty amazing.
- Marvel that none of these images are of actual people. Refresh for more computer-generated images
- Visiting a foreign country? It used to be that a foreign dictionary was the must-have thing, then a pocket electronic translator, then Google translate, which then developed to enable you to translate any text on a sign, menu etc using your phone camera. Now, a photo of anything! https://experiments.withgoogle.com/thing-translator
Finally, For further viewing in this area, be sure to watch this final video
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