Artificial Intelligence blog

By: Andrew Newell

It’s a common misconception that robots should be like humans. Actually, if they did, it means compromising their potential as a computing machine capable of processing billions of instructions per second while asking fringe benefits and leave benefits from their employers.

We’ve seen movies portray robots of the future with terms like “humanoids” or “Cyborgs” that stand for cybernetic organisms. There’s rarely much truth in them. Robots today are mostly stationary machines with tentacular armatures that perform multiple and often simultaneous tasks that churn out complete cars, trucks, appliances and motherboards and other complex electronic circuits.

But the objective remains to impart human-like quality in robots at least in the areas of stable mobility and cognitive interactivity for robotic science to consider

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By: Andrew Newell

For so long the applied science of computers and electro-mechanical engineering has ushered in robotics to vastly improve mass production in just about any complex machinery on earth.

You have manufacturing companies ranging from pharmaceuticals, food preparation, bottling, distilleries, cigarette manufacturing, automotive and electrical appliance manufacturing, to mention some, harnessing the immediate efficiencies of robots to churn thousands of commercial products in days where it would have taken human hands to finish in months.

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The development of “Artificially Intelligent” applications is becoming increasingly important from an economic perspective as people are finding their lives becoming increasingly interwoven with various forms of technology.

With ther internet playing an increasingly important role in peoples lives, the demands for intelligent search and filter functions has become more and more important.

In its simplest form - searching data on the internet. I recently read a story about a US company called Demand Media which churns out around 4000 articles a day. Some people refer to it as a ”spam” or “just good enough not to be spam” but if you can do the math – this company is putting 4000 pages on to the internet with the intention of effectively fooling search engines into finding their sites first.

 Another example is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) built into video games that ensure hours of play. Games have become increasingly smarter and the demands by users on developers has also morphed.

The other example is the impact of robotics on the South African workforce. I have interviewed a number of CEO’s over the course of the year including in the industrial, manufacturing and chemical sectors and almost all of them have said that they will be seeking out mechanised / robotic solutions to try and reduce their dependance on “costly” labour… “a robot doesn’t go on strike” was a comment made by one of them.

My main thinking here is to use this blog to chat about developments in the sector and try and highlight some of the major success stories locally. I’d like to use this blog to stimulate discussion around the sector and welcome thoughts, comments and criticism.