Artificial Intelligence

We are now living in the era of "big data", an era in which we can collect an enormous amount of information that cannot be processed by humans. The use of artificial intelligence in this regard has already proven very beneficial in several industries such as technology, banking, marketing and entertainment. Big data and large-scale computing have shown that artificial intelligence can learn by brute force, even if algorithms don't improve significantly. There may be evidence that Moore's Law is slowing down a bit, but it's clear that data growth hasn't lost momentum. Breakthroughs in computer science, mathematics, and neuroscience all have the potential to push the upper bound of Moore's Law. 

So what can we expect in the future? AI language is likely to be the next big topic in the near future. In fact, it has already started. I can't remember when was the last time I called the company and spoke directly to a human being. Even machines call me these days! You can imagine interacting with an expert system in fluent speech, or he can converse in two different languages translated in real time. We can also expect self-driving cars to be on the roads within the next 20 years (although this is conservative). In the long term, it's about general intelligence, machines that surpass human cognitive abilities for any task. This is similar to the intelligent robots you see in movies. I can't imagine this being successful in the next 50 years. Even if it had the ability, ethical issues would be a major obstacle to its implementation. When that time comes (but hopefully before that) we will have to have a serious conversation about the politics and ethics of machines (both of which are, ironically, fundamentally human issues), but right now Let AI progress steadily and allow society to run amok.