This is an article that appeared in Technofirst about AI titled ‘FROM INTELLIGENCE to ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ’…

FROM INTELLIGENCE to ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

“The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment  you wake up and does not stop  until you get into the office.”
There! I can see you smiling at that.

Fortunately or unfortunately , this is precisely the effect  created by the present usual corporate software jobs  on the 1.5 kg located within our heads. But then, in spite of the brain that stops working once you are in office, man has always been the most intelligent of all animals…capable of abstract thinking, reasoning, planning, problem solving , decision making…but wait! What then is the difference between man and the computer? Tough to say…

Now let me take you through a story,that  probably dosen’t start with  “Once upon a time..”, but sounds like a fairy tale all the same.

There was a time around three decades back that saw the introduction of a machine that was quite big, quite heavy and claimed to be quite fast…..a machine that claimed to make things faster and easier to anyone and anything around. Rumors about the success of this machine had already flooded in (before the machine itself) from the United States (where it had been introduced much earlier). But then, at that point it seemed to be a story that would not reach India in the immediate future. But there it came! Gradually our country, for the first time heard the 8-lettered golden word…. “COMPUTER”.  Very soon managers and members of directorial boards started to introduce this weird machine(weird according to the then employees) in offices with much enthusiasm. But all that the manager could get in return were grumpy and unhappy looks of insecurity from his employees. The human nature of “reluctance to change” gave rise to protests against the arrival of computers. Huge rallies, strikes and everything that could be done in protest to the introduction of computers were staged . But finally everything in vain. Computers were introduced in full swing in every organization. Employees were subjected to rigorous training to accommodate this new technology that had begun to trigger job insecurity among them. Thus came the era of “Survival of the Fittest”. Those who continued to show reluctance were chucked out while those who were smart enough to spot the need stayed on.  Since then the computer has held our hands and led us on a journey….. a journey from Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence.

It all started through mere tabulation, calculation and documentation. But gradually it travelled much beyond that…the “Smart machine” slowly grew to be called an” Intelligent machine”… gradually the change from Natural Intelligence to” Artificial Intelligence” was witnessed.

The very first mention of the words Artificial Intelligence might create an element of confusion in anyone…the confusion of how to recognize an artificially intelligent being? According to Alan Turing, if you question a human and an artificially intelligent being and if by their answers, you can’t recognize which is the artificial one, then you have succeeded in creating artificial intelligence. Simple? May sound so, but the journey wasn’t all that easy. Initial hopes of computer scientists of creating artificial intelligence, were dashed hopelessly as they realized how much they had underrated the human mind’s capabilities! Yes..it should never be forgotten that no computer stands a competition to the Human Brain!

Yet today we live in a world where anyone and everyone depends on the computer… and pretty much depends on the computer programs that make” Smart” machines” Intelligent”. Years after the much resistant introduction of the computers , today, I sit in an office, before a laptop , typing this story and I just heard one of my male colleagues say something interesting:

“Like somebody once said…that’s what is cool about working with computers ; they don’t argue, they remember everything and they don’t drink all your beer. “ funny but true, don’t you think?

If power fluctuations happen to interrupt your smooth working on the computer,I am sure you feel restless and helpless, for the simple reason that there is almost nothing you can do without the help of this amazing machine . What an irony ! The very same computer that was once a nightmare is today the backbone on which this  country runs …. Today the country unanimously agrees that probably after the invention of the Wheel the best invention ever made my mankind is the Computer…and there is no denying that.

It took us at least 3 decades to actually imbibe the need and relevance of the computer and related services. But I’m sure we are faster in identifying the significance of Artificial Intelligence created by computers. The applications of Artificial Intelligence is glaring straight at us almost everywhere around . Sometimes in the form of robotic pilots who carry out complex maneuvering techniques of unmanned spacecrafts ,and  at some other times in the form of intelligent software applications that beats the human predictive power by predicting the trends in stock market. Neural networks used for predicting weather conditions and expert systems in planes to monitor atmospheric conditions and system status are all classic examples of the fast pace at which this domain of Artificial Intelligence has been growing.

Gone are the days when man had to sit with a bunch of sheets to tabulate and document  his work….gone are the days when man had to keep track of these large number of pages….gone are the days when man had to refer to various thick hard binded books for information (thanks to Google!…now every piece of information is just a click away) …..and very soon, gone will be the days when we need to look for parking when we are already late to office…simply because intelligent robots will be at our service.

Yes ! the journey from the good old days of intelligence to this new era of artificial intelligence is definitely one to cherish….and definitely NOT one to be confined to just 2 pages.

I would like to share with you a catchy tagline that I came across recently. It says “intelligence WAS the ability to think. But intelligence today IS the ability to make something think “. I soon realized that it was the redefinition of “intelligence” given by a company that happens to be the only company working solely in the Artificial Intelligence domain in INDIA; “ARTIN DYNAMICS”. Mere curiosity to know more about the company that operates in this interesting area brought me to their amazing product, SPARA.Being a person who constantly worries over the whooping figures that glare at me from my monthly electricity bills, I soon realized that this is the right place for me to be at. Do you think that being able to curb 97% of phantom power loss from machines is something small? If not then you share the same opinion as me. Believe it or not this is precisely what SPARA does. Check the difference in the figures of your electricity bills before and after using SPARA….that would explain it all.

Today while I share a small space in this spacious office I can sense an element of pride within me for belonging to that great team where employees do not come to work, but to enjoy work; where the job culture is not just good; but simply amazing….yes..this is a proud member of the ARTIN DYNAMICS family saying goodbye to you for now….