Autonomous Cars Week 2
There is quite a bit this week that I have learned that I found very interesting, particularly around the topic of AI. I didn’t know that AI had two different kinds of AI the weak or narrow AI and the strong AI, and like in the article from IBM stated “Weak AI drives most of the AI that surrounds us today.”(What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?, 2021), devices like Siri or Alexa are powered by narrow AI and that’s something that I never took into account I was grouping all AI into the came category.
It was interesting to better understand the difference between machine learning and deep learning in AI. It was also interesting to Max Tegmark in his Ted Talk use the analogy of a Rockets power, steering and destination when talking about how we can develop AI. When talking about power he talked about how the growth of AI will power the rockets as more and more people develop it we can take it farther and do more with it, stating how he was impressed with how far AI has come stating “It’s really amazing how the power of AI has grown recently. Just think about it. Not long ago, robots couldn’t walk. Now, they can do backflips. Not long ago, we didn’t have self-driving cars. Now, we have self-flying rockets.”(Tegmark, 1528901718). When talking about steering he tells us, this part of the metaphor was interesting to me because he talks about how he works with a non profit to organize conferences to help benefit AI research in a way that it will benefit us in the future and at one of the conferences making a list of principles to be followed by AI researchers. And Finally he talks about the destination about where we want to end up with AI and how our steering can change where we end up weather it be good or bad. I liked this use of the rocket metaphor because it made it easy to understand how we control the way that AI can shape our future.
When talking about AI in autonomous vehicles it was also interesting to better understand the effects of autonomous vehicles on the way the cities are laid out, that was something that I never really took in to consideration, things like parking. In the Ted talk with Nico Larco he talks about how things like parking will become less needed as we move towards autonomous cars, things like affordable housing become more possible because we don’t need to buy the extra land for parking(Larco, 1540402269), so its interesting to see how these vehicles will effect not just the roads but most things in our lives. Another thing that I had not taken into consideration that is mentioned in the ted talk from Dan LaBruna is about how autonomous vehicles can help the disabled or those that have trouble with transportation, that if we create a way to allow for better more accessible autonomous cars we can help a very underserved group of people. “This is where the true value of autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence lie, in building an inclusive world that provided independence through mobility for those that often have to go without.”(LaBruna, 1540313092). This is also something that I never through about when considering how autonomous vehicles could better impact the world, and its interesting to see that it could. I don’t think that my thoughts on AVs has changed because I started out in support of them and thought that they are a very interesting and cool concept that could help people, but I think that everything that we have learned from these talks and material gave me more reason to look forward to when it is available.
LaBruna, D. (1540313092). Is My Driverless Car Ready Yet? https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_labruna_is_my_driverless_car_ready_yet
Larco, N. (1540402269). How Will Autonomous Vehicles Transform Our Cities? https://www.ted.com/talks/nico_larco_how_will_autonomous_vehicles_transform_our_cities
Tegmark, M. (1528901718). How to get empowered, not overpowered, by AI. https://www.ted.com/talks/max_tegmark_how_to_get_empowered_not_overpowered_by_ai
What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? (2021, June 23). https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/what-is-artificial-intelligence