ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - THINKING BIG

1) Before watching the video read the extract of an article from The Economist and you will find out why robots are not as smart as humans.

Poor eyesight remains one of the main obstacles to letting robots loose among humans. But it is improving, in part by aping natural vision

ROBOTS are getting smarter and more agile all the time. They disarm bombs, fly combat missions, put together complicated machines, even play football.Why, then, one might ask, are they nowhere to be seen, beyond war zones, factories and technology fairs? One reason is that they themselves cannot see very well. And people are understandably wary of purblind contraptions bumping into them willy-nilly in the street or at home.

All that a camera-equipped computer “sees” is lots of picture elements, or pixels. A pixel is merely a number reflecting how much light has hit a particular part of a sensor. The challenge has been to devise algorithms that can interpret such numbers as scenes composed of different objects in space. This comes naturally to people and, barring certain optical illusions, takes no time at all as well as precious little conscious effort. Yet emulating this feat in computers has proved tough.

In natural vision, after an image is formed in the retina it is sent to an area at the back of the brain, called the visual cortex, for processing. The first nerve cells it passes through react only to simple stimuli, such as edges slanting at particular angles. They fire up other cells, further into the visual cortex, which react to simple combinations of edges, such as corners. Cells in each subsequent area discern ever more complex features, with those at the top of the hierarchy responding to general categories like animals and faces, and to entire scenes comprising assorted objects. All this takes less than a tenth of a second.

Here you can find vocabulary which might help you to understand better the text:

ape - to copy something or someone badly and unsuccessfully

purblind - having poor vision; nearly or partly blind.

wary of sth - not completely trusting or certain about something or someone, e.g. I'm a bit wary of/about giving people my address when I don't know them very well.

willy-nilly - a) if something happens willy-nilly, it happens whether the people who are involved want it to happen or not, e.g. Both sides were drawn, willy-nilly, into the conflict.

b) without any order

emulate - to copy something achieved by someone else and try to do it as well as they have

contraption - a device or machine that looks awkward or old-fashioned, especially one that you do not know how to use

2) Before watching the video have a look at the following vocabulary:

to send a shiver downone's spine - a frightened or excited feeling, e.g. At its most terrifying, his writing sends shivers up and down my spine.

nimble - quick and exact either in movement or thoughts

to be endowed with sth - to have a particular quality or feature

Some lucky people are endowed with both brains and beauty.

3) Watch the following programme on artificial intelligence and decide whether the following statements are true or false:

1) Today's robots can be compared to toddlers.
2) The aim of the STAR project is to build robots for companies.
3) Writing algorithms to make machines more intelligent is fairly simple.
4) Programmers need to have a deep understanding of both computer science and robotics.
5) Robots are endowed with extra senses which humans do not have.
6) STAR robots have to be able to recognize the colours of objects.
7) When it comes to learning , numbers function as rewards.
8) Human brain has 11 mln neurons.
9) The knowledge of the human brain is necessary to develop a new generation of smart machines.
10) Machines will soon exert significant influence over our day-to-day existence.