Artificial Intelligence is progressing at a rapid pace, what can we expect to see in the new age of AI. In the program today, we will take a look at the move to open Siri to developers, a new intelligent eating service that will tell you the amount of calories you are about to consume and the implanting of microchips in humans to track our every move.
Show Notes
00:30 - Apple Announces iOS X & Opens SIRI to Developers Last Monday Apple Kicked off its worldwide developers conference. with the news of the biggest ever release of it's iOS mobile operating system. According to Tim Cook the iOS 10 will be out later this fall and he considers it "Gigantic", and "the Mother of All Releases". So with this type of introduction from the head of Apple we can expect that this coming release will have a wow factor for many ... but will it?
Let's take a look at some of the new offerings in this upcoming version of the iOS 10
We are expecting to see some more features in it's messaging app, also there will be new designs for news, music and photos. And now developers can integrate their apps with Siri, Maps, and Messages. Looking at this very short list, we can see that the only interesting thing here is that Apple is going to open up Siri, Messages, and Maps to developers to add to those services.
Now this is Apple's biggest move to open up some of it's apps to third party developers. And this is a great step for consumers. Even experts in AI are applauding this move as an important step forward. But it begs the question ... why didn't Apple make Siri an open platform much sooner? Is it a little too late for Apple? Now Siri has been in operation for about five years now.
The other tech giants like Amazon Microsoft and Google have already opened their assistants to developers. Now the goal of AI is to equip computers with the ability to perform functions normally done by people such as speech recognition.
These voice powered digital assistants could eventually perform many tasks that we currently do with our fingers. Think about replacing typing or even using a mouse. AI technology is considered key to any major tech company. So we can see with the head start thatAmazon, Microsoft, and Google already have, Apple is trailing way, way behind.
Many technology experts have other concerns about Apples aptitude for AI as well. One such concern was that the company was slow to recruit talent to match that of Google and Amazon. The other concern is about Apple's strict privacy stance which limits data collection. Data collection is critical and essential for making assistants smarter.
Now think of the analogy of a child. If a child is locked away, how can that child grow and learn to become better? So with it's limited data collection stance, Siri will not become as intelligent as the others and will lag behind.
I like the way Oren Etzioni, who is the CEO of the Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence, and Professor at the University of Washington puts it. He said regarding Monday's announcements "We see some policy shifts, we see some small changes, but there was no explosive announcement". He is absolutely right! This announcement from Apple is not "Gigantic", and definitely this new version of the iOS will not be the "Mother of All Releases".
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5:30 - "
AVA": The AI Calorie-Counting App
Are you a Foodie who watches everything you eat? Do you meticulously log your entire food intake into an app so as to keep track of your calories? What if there was a way where you could just take a picture of your meal and then get the results of the number of calories it contains?
In continuing our theme of today's show on AI, I would like to share with you such a company that is working on a product to tell you instantly how many calories you are about to consume.
AVA a new startup company which plans to use it's intelligent eating service whereby users will simply take a photo of their food and then text it to AVA. AVA will then respond with the health and caloric information.
If you're like me you may wonder how will this work? According to Ian Brady, AVA's co-founder and CEO, they are using AI to assist nutritionists in estimating calories as well as making recommendations. They are factoring into it historical eating habits, diet patterns, location, and behavioural analysis against a database of roughly 50,000 meals.
Since AVA is still in the private beta mode, Brady is not spilling the beans on exactly how this technology will work. But he says it's a combination of image recognition, human recognition, and AI algorithms.
What's neat is in addition to recognizing what users eat AVA is also planning on going one step further in making personalized recommendations for future meals, along with ongoing from AVA coaches.
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7:28 -
New Trend: Embedding Chips in Humans
And for our final piece today we will talk about surveillance Technology. Most of us carry a tracking device with us every day in the form of a phone that is strapped to our hip. But some are going even further by having microchips implanted in their bodies.
The US Navy has grown so concerned over this practice that it is drawing up an official policy to help deal with personnel that have chips implanted.
They recently held meetings to discus this highly controversial technology of implanting microchips which could one day allow the government to track the movements of every single citizen in the country.
A number of Naval Officers visited the home of an American Presidential Candidate Zoltan Istvan. Yes an American Presidential Candidate. He's also a Trans-Humanist who believes human beings should be fitted with technology to boost thier brain power to enhance physical attiributes.
Don't worry if you haven't heard of him before today, neither did I.
What was discussed was the possibility of implanting humans with GPS technology. He also suggests this could one day allow humans to live forever. I'm not sure how this is possible for someone to live forever with GPS technology in a microchip in their system, but this is what he believes.
Today microchips are fitted to pets, but not to humans. For some people the thought of being "chipped" conjures an image where the state carries out a constant surveillance of its citizens. This constant surveillance conjures up images of a 1984 Society.
But Itsvan believes otherwise, he thinks that microchipping humans could have some major benefits. He claims that it could allow parents to know if their child is in danger. Or it could have even allowed investigators to find the body of Lain Graves with that chip in that child they would have found the alligator within a matter of minutes.
Microchipping may have some good benefits. But if you look at this deeply, we don't know exactly what the government would do. Within a few years it could become a law that you have a chip in your body. Would there be any way to opt out of this? Those are the implicaitons of having a microchip in your body.
It eats away at your liberties. Would you be able to get back your freedom? So is it worth it to have a microchip in your body?
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