AI Madness

I hear so much about Artificial Intelligence these days. Typically, the comments generally fall into two different observations: AI is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or AI is going to take over the world and put everyone out of work.

Although the advent of sliced bread represented a monumental step forward in the baking industry, it pales in comparison to technological advancements like Artificial Intelligence.

The first sliced bread was sold in 1927. By 1933, around 80% of bread sold in the U.S. was pre-sliced. The first AI applications included game-playing programs, natural language programs, general problem solvers, and early vision systems. Unlike sliced bread, these technological advancements remain unnoticed by 99 percent of the population.

You may be surprised to learn that I worked on developing a fraud detection application using early forms of Artificial Intelligence in the merchant banking industry in the 1990s. So, AI has been around for a long time. It only seems like it has recently appeared out of thin air.

That's the nature of technological innovation. I remember when there were no cell phones – at least it seemed that there were no cell phones. In fact, the first cell phones were created back in the 1970s, but building widespread networks took time. The rapid growth of cell phones began in the 1990s, but true ubiquity didn’t occur until the 2010s. And now, they have evolved into smartphones, providing us with GPS, cameras, internet, and apps for just about everything. How did we get by without them?

Do you remember when drones were a military thing? Now they are used in agriculture, construction, public safety, logistics, media, and on and on. I have several friends who own one. When they first became available to the public, I remember thinking that we would live to rue the day, but so far, they haven’t had any adverse effect on my life.