12th March 2014 · By Tarra L. Rios

Our Artificial World!

The commencement of Artificial Intelligence began during the Renaissance age with fascinating, unrealistic tales in Greek mythology. Legends within the culture told of artificially simulated beings, who had been manufactured by humans, with the intent to overtake the god’s. Currently, these stories are nothing more than mere words. However, scientific research is leading humanity into a whole new “artificial world”. Day after day, new technology is arising that is making our life, and the care we receive, much more substantial, and enjoyable. No longer bound by the image of robots, A. I. has gone mainstream, delving into the depths of virtually every industry in society.

Abu Dahbi, a city located in the United Arab Emirates, has implemented the use of A.I. in their traffic safety plan. Last year alone, local traffic accidents killed just as many people as leukemia. Those astonishing figures led authorities to create a system that would intelligently calculate traffic mishaps, while consistently finding solutions to fix them. Although these machines cannot replace the value of good driving, they do have the ability to expand the safety of the environment around us, especially in places like New York City, where traffic congestion is an everyday issue.

The healthcare industry has jumped on the “artificial” bandwagon, as well. Scientists in Singapore have discovered a new way to detect one of the most commonly known eye disorders: Pathological Myopia. Pathological Myopia is the seventh leading cause of blindness world wide, and the number one cause of blindness in Asian countries. Zhuo Zhang, an employee of the A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore, developed this amazing machine after hand calculated figures were only able to diagnose the disease 87% of the time. This figure left 13% of sufferers unaccounted for. Although 13% is not a large number, in general, it is quite the volume when dealing with a whole population of people. Due to the current success of Zhuo Zhangs remarkable machine, studies are being done on other eye diseases, like macular degeneration, with the hopes of providing better, and more efficient, care for it’s current, and future, victims.

Everyday our lives are spent finding easier ways to do things! Is that not the unified goal of modern civilization? Unfortunately, all of these machines, no matter how well made, are put together with parts, therefore, creating the possibility of a malfunction. We are not perfect beings, and, consequently, we are not able to make anything perfect. Flaws are part of life! Artificially intelligent machines only know what we, as humans, allow them to know. The amount of help that these contraptions provide is only as great as we make them! Through vast amounts of scientific research have found innovative ways to make these mechanism’s work for us, and is some cases save lives! Future technology through artificial intelligence will surely provide the possibility to expand our scientific horizons while prolonging this life we hold so dear!

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