Trying to understand current trends in artificial intelligence could give Joe or Jane Blow a migraine
By Bryan A. Hollerbach
Fuzzy logic. Evolutionary computation. Swarm intelligence. Concepts and expressions like these would make most folks gobble aspirins like M&M’s. Not so Dr. Cihan H. Dagli.
Dagli, you see, serves as a University of Missouri–Rolla professor of engineering management, systems engineering and computer engineering—topics that might lead you to think he’s working on projects like cyborg hottie Jaime Sommers from NBC’s new/old Bionic Woman.
No such luck. “These are basically tools that you use in designing and operating complex systems that are connected all together,” Dagli explains from UMR’s Smart Engineering Systems Laboratory, which he directs. He’s also overseeing a St. Louis conference to be held downtown in mid-November: the 17th annual ANNIE (Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering).
If the phrase “artificial neural networks” brings to mind visions of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey or C-3P0 from Star Wars,though, brace yourself. Instead of glitzy AIs—artificial intelligences—and gabby robots, Dagli and his colleagues focus mostly on cascades of data, taking algorithms (an “Excedrin headache” of a word for anyone unfamiliar with tech-talk) through multiple iterations (ditto).
“You do simulations to assess what behavior might be sort of controlling them,” says Dagli. Translation: He and his colleagues crunch numbers. Lots of numbers. Big numbers.
Moreover—pop another Bufferin—his field itself has been evolving. “The way that we understand more about the brain,” the professor notes, “the definition of artificial intelligence and the work change. Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be just like humans’.”
In that respect, he suggests that the Turing test, an AI metrical standard, may need refining, especially because many common devices—some slot machines, for instance—now incorporate fuzzy logic. But a bona fide stand-alone AI? “We are not there, I don’t think,” Dagli confesses with a chuckle. “Not in my lifetime.”
That confession comes not a moment too soon, frankly: Our publisher was preparing to spring for half a dozen Mark 10 Editbots.
