What is really intelligent? Intelligence or Artificial Intelligence!

In the last ten years, terms like AI, AR, VR et al are coming in news and in discussions. AI is artificial intelligence whereas AR is augmented reality and VR is virtual reality.

Augmented Reality is an interactive experience of a real-world environment whereby the objects that reside in the real-world are “augmented” by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory.  Virtual reality completely replaces the user’s real-world environment with a simulated one.

Virtual Reality is the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with, in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors.

Artificial Intelligence is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. I will be writing today only about AI, in the language that I can understand.

Enough of tech things, hopefully, these definitions have indicated what these things really are. Coming back to the title, an obvious conclusion will be Intelligence is more intelligent than Artificial Intelligence. The answer is both yes and no! Yes, is because after all the creator of artificial intelligence is a human. When we talk of intelligence it is about human intelligence! QED! No, because Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence are two different animals and supposed to handle different things. Hence making this comparison may not be the right thing. In human life, decisions are not taken as 1 & 0 every time. AI activity is about a decision-making activity, always, as 1 & 0!

Consider the BOTS. BOTS are Web Robots. When we go into a Chat mode with a site like Amazon, chats are handled by BOTS, these days. How do the BOTS work? During chat customers usually, ask a certain set of questions. Depending on the standard questions asked BOTS are trained to give replies. Generally, it will say, “How may I help you?” Depending on the what the customer says, about a certain order or delivery issue or a quality issue, BOTS system (yes, it is a system though initially it is trained to say I am Vijay or some such name!)  in Nanoseconds, will run through its database and type an appropriate reply. Maybe in 70 to 80 % of cases, BOT can find the answer. But in certain situations, it cannot find a reply. In this case, it is trained to say, “let me ask my seniors, could you hold on, please?” Then a human supervisor, who handles about 20 BOTS, takes over and resolves the issue. This is like self-checkout counters in foreign countries where there is one supervisor to support ten machines used by us!

What really is AI? Even the most sophisticated AI technology is, at its core, no different from other computer software: bits of data running through circuits at super-fast rates. Where AI falls short is thinking in the abstract, applying common sense, or transferring knowledge from one area to another. For instance, Zomato might be very good at reserving restaurant tables, a narrow and a very specific task. There are many proven instances in which AI models fail in spectacular and illogical ways as soon as they’re presented with an example that falls outside of their problem domain or is different from the data they’ve been trained on. The broader the domain, the more data the AI needs to be able to master it, and there will always be boundary line cases, scenarios that haven’t been covered by the training data and will cause the AI to fail.

Contrary to computers, humans are terrible at storing and processing information, comparatively. For instance, you must listen to a song several times before you can memorize it. But for a computer, memorizing a song is as simple as pressing “Save” in an application or copying the file into its hard drive. Likewise, un memorizing is hard for humans. Try as you might, you can’t forget bad memories. For a computer, it’s as easy as deleting a file.

When it comes to processing data, humans are obviously inferior to AI.  Humans might be able to perform the same tasks as computers. However, in the time that it takes for a human to identify and label an image, an AI algorithm can classify one million images. However, humans can make abstract decisions based on instinct, common sense and scarce information. A human child learns to handle objects at a very young age. For an AI algorithm, it takes hundreds of years of training to perform the same task.

There are robots in Japan to take care of senior citizens. They handle routine tasks. But if it is suddenly asked which was that movie you had seen in 1960, it will not know. But if you ask this question to a human who is your friend from childhood, he will suggest to you the names of five different movies from that period. This is the difference between Human Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence. The robot, in this case, is not expected to give a reply. Artificial intelligence is good at processing data, bad at thinking in abstract whereas Humans are bad at processing data, good at making abstract decisions.

Humans can invent new things, including all the technologies that have ushered in the era of artificial intelligence. AI can only take data, compare it, come up with new combinations and presentations, and predict trends based on previous sequences.

Humans can feel, imagine, dream. They can be selfless or greedy. They can love and hate, they can lie, they forget, they confuse facts. And all of those emotions can change their decisions in rational or irrational ways. They’re imperfect and flawed beings made of flesh, which decays with time. But every single one of them is unique in his or her own way and can create things that no one else can. Robots do not have all these properties. They will keep on doing a repetitive job, every time. They don’t get old but their component may fail. They are emotionless.

While chatting with friends, one of the friends, who is in the same field as Jaya, was pulling Jaya’s leg.  He asked her, “What is the difference between AI and real Intelligence?”  Jaya smiled and told him, “You are artificially intelligent, I am really intelligent”! So, it’s simple, never compare AI and human Intelligence; they are oranges and apples!

AF and BF!

 

The caricatures will indicate the subject of my blog!

‘AD‘ is the initials of the Latin words anno domini, which means “Year of the Lord” – in other words, (approximately) the number of years since the birth of Jesus. The modern equivalent is ‘CE’, which means “Common Era”. ‘BC” is the initials of the English words “before Christ” – a way of counting backwards in time before the current era. But now new terminologies have come up, BF is Before Facebook and AF is After Facebook. Facebook started in 2004 February and WhatsApp in Jan 2009. They have made a great revolution in our lives.

These technologies churned out because of two behemoths of the modern technology, Internet and Cell phone. As normally happens, FB &WA changed our methods of communications totally. These helped us to locate old friends, long lost pals! Everybody was thrilled. We got controls in our hands and we could communicate with anybody and everybody, anytime, be it midnight or be it noon!

In 70’s the communication with each other was by mail and telephones; telephones in our part of the world were a rarity. There was methodology and etiquettes, in their usage,  which were established over a period of time. There were certain etiquettes for business letters and there were some for personal letters. World over, the postal departments were doing the job of delivering the mail. This conventional mail slowly came to be known as snail mail as the time taken for a letters to reach was 3 to 6 days within the country and 3 to 4 weeks in foreign countries.

Slowly with internet came e mail, personal telephones called cell phones became available. But these technologies also came up slowly in nineties! In the 21st century two technologies started galloping and these proliferated world over. In India cell phone usage has increased at the break neck speed. From the same two technologies were born FB and later WhatsApp! Once people realized how easy it is to use FB &WA, the numbers simply became billions! Another thing that helped was increase in Internet speed and Bandwidth, added to it was the local language availability. Video calls became possible as easily like voice calls. We think that these developments happened suddenly but technology does not work this way. These developments of Video on cell phone had started in the year 2000/2001. In 15 years, better hardware, software and Internet changed the face of the technology.

How was this useful to human race? I can say that, had this technology been available before 2nd world war, it was possible that Hitler could have won the war. He had a very fierce propaganda machine led by Goebbels but with FB & WA his reach could have been global. There were enough desperados in this world, who would have joined Hitler!

I don’t want to flood you with statistics about usage of these two apps and all apps in general. From what I have checked on the net the time spent is between 2 to 4 hours in working and retired people; the same use is even more in student community.

https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/

https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/whatsapp-statistics/

I have noted that usage of these apps has increased during the time in offices, office time which is supposed to be productive. I go to various industries and the new trend is that people still seem to be busy, but many are busy looking at their cell phones. These organizations prohibit access to the social media apps on their office computers but with smart phone prices spiraling down, large number of people can afford smart phones. Access to these apps on personal phones cannot be stopped. Once we were waiting to meet a senior officer in an organization. We were told that he is busy in a conference call. He was sitting in a designated area. We passed by that area two or three times; every time he was busy on his cell phone screen. Never saw him talking on phone.

Social issues created by these apps are worse (loss of productivity, loss of family time) than the advantages offered by them. Out of 3 to 4 hrs time spent on these apps, important time is eaten away from “family time”, after reaching home.  Of course, the whole family is busy looking at the screen! The so-called group usage of WA is a curse. More than 90% messages are forwards! This facility has been used for spreading rumors and has resulted in killings of people, based on rumors in India. WA is struggling to prevent this from happening, under government pressure!

 

I will share some experiences with you. The above caricatures show how today’s lovers enjoy, they don’t look into each others eyes but.. at their own cell phone screen! The other day a couple came home for coffee. After usual, hi and hellos the gentleman got busy on his cell phone. After more than five minutes he had to be bluntly asked if he came to our home to check his WA messages? Once we had gone out for a family dinner with young family gang. One of the kids, 20 years old was addicted to her cell phone. She was sitting opposite me. After 15 minutes or so, I told her to put the cell phone away as we were having a lovely dinner. After that episode she avoids me in family get togethers. How do we resolve this?

Now I am semi-retired so it hardly is going to make any difference if I wasted time on FB/WA. But, I have decided that in future, I will access Facebook only on days when I publish my blog. (All these days publishing was automatic but FB does not allow automatic publishing from WordPress from 1/8/2018) I will communicate with friends on their birthdays/ and some special events privately, never on the wall.

On WhatsApp, I may be required to react on a couple of groups as I am Admin in one, and the other is our society group where I am the chairman. So, I will be accessing WhatsApp only once in a day, early mornings. Similarly, I will use WhatsApp to circulate my blogs only!

There was a movie called “Back to the future” which took the hero back to his parent’s school time zone. I am going “Back to Pre FB-days”. I have been trying it for last week or so and I am happy.

Please forward this blog or like it! My purpose for writing this is just to communicate with you by “New or maybe OLD” method of communication in future. After all there is life beyond Facebook and WhatsApp!

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes- Who will Guard the Guards!

Quis custodiet Ipsos custodes- Who will Guard the Guards!

Quis custodiet Ipsos custodes is a Latin saying about who will guard the guards! The meaning of the term is very accurate in today’s times! In Marathi, there is a saying शेळीने कुंपण खाल्ले! If your sheep eats the bushes on the compound, there is nothing you can do about it! We see so many examples of this type of act and behaviour in our society that I became very agitated when I read Latin saying. I always avoid writing about things involving politics, as there are too many experts in this field. My anguish would not let me sleep well! This blog is my anguish about the people who care two hoots for the nation.

During the British Raj in India, the British built a monument about 25 km from Pune, the so-called Vijay Stambh (Victory  Monument)! It was to celebrate their victory against Peshwas about 200 years back. Peshwas were like Prime Ministers or Chief Executives of the then Kings. When you have foreign rule for a long time, some people will inevitably work for rulers as officers, clerks, soldiers, and many other professions. It mainly concerns their earning of livelihood and not about their allegiance with the ruler! The British army had soldiers from the so-called lower caste to fight for them. Peshwas also had soldiers from that same caste, plus soldiers from the upper caste; Peshwas were from the Top Echelons of the Society.

On new year’s eve this year, the lower caste people, for some reason, decided to celebrate the 200 years of “the victory”. Why they invited “firebrand” politicians from different states in India, only they will be able to explain. This event was converted into a political jamboree and was publicised as “Celebration of Lower Caste  Victory over Upper Caste”. Firstly, people forget that it was the British victory, not the “Lower Caste Victory”. I am sure that without British Generals, there would have been no victory to celebrate! With the current state of terrorism and economic uncertainty, we don’t need such stupid events. People are creating an uncertain, dangerous atmosphere leading to riots and protests throughout Maharashtra. The state was held to ransom for a few days!

I remember a caricature where the common man in India tells a group of terrorists to go on a holiday; he says we have enough amongst us who will take the nation down! For this event, we had one lady whose only qualification was that her son had committed suicide while completing his PhD! The reason is some social issues and probably poverty! She has now become a leader! Another was a young PhD student from JNU whose primary qualification is that he fearlessly shouted anti-India slogans and was a big supporter of a terrorist hanged for the act of terror against the state of India. One more guy was recently elected to the Gujarat assembly and has the vocabulary to incite the crowd! These are called firebrand leaders these days! I thought Bhagat Singh and Rajguru were firebrand leaders! And so was Lokmanya Tilak. They were fighting against the enemy and not against their people. Current firebrand leaders are competing in the same spirit against the nation; they feel that only they and their ilk are the ones who have difficulties in life!

Cancer spreading fast in our nation and needs to be arrested. I don’t care if such guys are from lower, middle or upper caste! Cancer is cancer and needs to be “arrested” and cut off as per the situation’s needs. After all, what is cancer? These are the same “good” cells in our body with “cancerous” thoughts, like the latest Fire Brand leaders. Those of us who have a similar thought process to uplift our nation should come together and act! It does not mean that we have riots and hold people to ransom. We should talk openly about such “cancerous” thought processes. Those who can write in newspapers or blogs or where ever they can! Another thought that always comes to mind is that people have time on hand to take part in such acts! We should come together as people and try and create more work for everybody. When one is gainfully busy, one does not get time to participate in such events.

As usual, I am taking the help of a Hindi Movie song to make my thoughts forward. I have displayed partial lyrics from a song below. Hindi movie songs are another subject which calls for discussion, but let’s do it some other time.

Also, my apologies as I am not a linguist. I have tried my best to explain the gist of the meaning from the lyrics.

chingaaree koee bhadake,

to saawan use buzaaye

saawan jo agan lagaaye,

use kaun buzaaye?

The lyrics mean that if a fire is created because of sparks, the rain will douse it! But if the rains stoke the fires, then who will soak them!

koee Dushman then lagaaye,

to meet jiyaa bahalaaye

manameet jo ghaanw lagaaye,

use kaun mitaye?

We may stumble because of an enemy; then, there are your own near and dear ones who will help you overcome the trauma! But if your near and dear ones backstab you, who will help you overcome it?

mazadhaar mein naiyyaa dole,

to maanzee paar lagaaye

maanzee jo naaw dooboye use Kaun bachaaye?

Your boat may sway and tumble in a storm, but there is the boatman who will bring it under control! But if the boatman himself sinks the ship, who will save you?

Any thought process that goes against the nation is an absolute no! I hope all of us will allow goodness within us a chance to overcome incorrect thoughts and acts!

I am ending with a great thought I found on the net.

One of Socrates’ interlocutors in the Republic, Glaucon, says “it would be absurd that a guardian should need a guard.” But Socrates returns to this point at 590d, where he says that the best person “has a divine ruler within himself” and that “everyone should be ruled by divine reason, preferably within himself and his own.”

Listen to this great Kishor Kumar song to return to a better mood. It’s a sad but lovely song from where I have picked lyrics! Chingari Koi Bhadke! In the Movie “Amar Prem”

Chingari Koi Bhadke (Eng Sub) [Full Video Song] (HD) With Lyrics – Amar Prem – YouTube

Serendipity!

The word Serendipity means the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. Some of my friends are always saying that I am infected by “Tharoorism”. Honestly, I am not, and Serendipity is a word that was first used in 1754. It is said to be one the hardest words to translate. Notion of Serendipity is common in science domain as some important discoveries in science are due to chance e.g. Alexander Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin, discovery of microwave oven, “Post-It” note.

Don’t worry, I am not going into discovery mode, but I get a feeling that in today’s world of rush, rush and rush we don’t leave time for Serendipity, we don’t leave time for anything! I am not talking of the time when we are working. But besides work we do so many things in life but we seem to continue to rush through things. We take holidays, we go for brunch, we go for shopping, we just chat, we go for a stroll, we read, we play, we paint; but we have gone into a habit of rushing through everything.

We had recently gone on a holiday in Europe; with age and language issue we thought that it may be a good idea to take a conducted tour. We had two-day stay in St. Moritz in Switzerland. The tour director had offered to take our group to various peaks and the lake, but the program was quite cramped. We told her that we will go at our own leisurely pace and maybe see a few things less!

First, we took the bus and took a tour of the town at our own pace getting down where ever we wanted. We went to the famous lake and spent a couple of hours there and really had a great time. We saw many small things which were not mentioned in any of the brochures. A very tall escalator to come up to the road level from the lake, was a pleasant surprise as we never got the judgement of depth of the lake from the main road! We were looking for nature’s beauty, but this man-made structure was also a surprise to us. We took some photos and videos but most of the time just enjoyed  the beauty of the nature through our own eyes and not through the lenses. The colour changes of the mountains and lake water, due to cloud movement were simply superb.

Later, we went to a couple of peaks at the height of 3800 meters, plus. What we did there was to absorb the atmosphere, look at the beauty of snow and sunshine, drink the pure weather! We were hungry, but they did not offer food which suited our diet. The chef there said if we had some time with us, he could cook something to suit us. That was the best sandwich we had on the entire tour, Serendipity?

We felt like sitting and watching this lake as long as possible, it was so beautiful!

We were in Innsbruck, Austria. The traditional dance show was the optional part of the tour. It was called Tyrolean Evening. We were informed that no photography was allowed during the show. It turned out to be an absolute boon as we could enjoy the show thoroughly, we could see and feel the energy, we could see the superb coordination of the group and we could also enjoy our wine! The way dancers energetically tapped their thighs in coordination, was simply awesome. The show was the highlight of the tour! It was a late show, we were tired but were never rushed. It was the Serendipity moment. Here is the link for the show.

https://www.tiroler-abend.com/en/tyrolean-evenings/tyrolean-evening.html

 

Social media has added to our rush/rush mentality. Everybody wants to share what they are doing and seeing, on the social media. It may be Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter and what have you. We have made it a rule to share such things only with close family that maybe at the end of the day! Sharing photos and videos from the locations is an absolute no no! The rush for sharing things on the media, puts your mind away from what you are doing, you feel that you are enjoying it by sharing it! But if you think seriously, except close family and friends, all others are not so keen to know what you are doing at every moment. This excited behavior has led to accidents as people have fallen from mountains, fallen from ships, fallen from trains in their attempt to “share” instantly. I had written in my blog “Touch the whale”; people go on whale sighting trips but are behind the lenses all the time instead of touching the whale which has come at a touchable distance.

When you go for shopping, occasionally you end up getting a deal which you will never get if you rush through. During brunch, keep extra time, linger on a bit, try new things, you may discover some new food stuff that you had never tried out before; if you don’t rush you may meet a long-lost friend. But rushing habit is not good for anyone as it creates stress and can affect your health.

Sorry! I must rush and take my evening sunset photographs! I don’t get enough time to write my blogs because I must rush and meet friends, just before I rush for evening bridge rubbers. Then of course there is a late evening dinner with family before going for that recently released, late night movie! I just don’t get time for anything, but I enjoy rushing everywhere! I really enjoy ! Do I?