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Alexandra Dyson

Dr. Strother

English 170

21 April 2019

Artificial Intelligence

The Twelfth Scandinavian Conference on Artificial Intelligence: SCAI 2013 describes

Artificial intelligence as “entities that are situated in an environment in which they can act and

sense” (SCAI 2013). The author went on to state that “Intelligent agents are usually

characterized by their ability to be proactive, reactive, autonomous, and social” (SCAI 2013). An

article through stanford said, “RP [reasoning program] interacts with the world through input and

output devices some of which may be general sensory and motor organs (for example, television

cameras, microphones, artificial arms) and others of which are communication devices (for

example, teletypes or keyboard-display consoles)”(McCarthy 7). These descriptions of these

devices allows readers a look into their capabilities, yet leaves them to wonder, “do technological

“personal assistants” actually assist their owners?” Is the progress being made to advance these

devices actually worth it in the long run? SCAI 2013 creates a well thought out description of the

modern artificial intelligence and technological personal assistants.

A studied look into this topic will hopefully provide readers an answer to these questions.

If artificial intelligence serves as not much of an assistant, it doesn't necessarily mean that it does

harm for people. In the end, it is likely to be nothing much more than a flaunting of our

technological advances; similar to that which was displayed during the 1969 moon landing, when

the United States of America fought to show our believed “technological superiority” in

comparison to Russia, Germany, and the other world powers. This was discussed by John F.
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Kennedy when he said "No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to

stay behind in this race for space...We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other

things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Versions of artificial intelligence have been around from the dawn of time as humans

have imagined their lives simpler, more technological, and “futuristic.” Seemingly, all that has

changed is the definition of technology. What used to be seen as fire or shelter is now seen as

computers, robots, and more machinery for war. Bruce G Buchanan’s article A (Very) Brief

History of Artificial Intelligence discusses this matter.

“In this brief history, the beginnings of artificial intelligence are traced to philosophy,

fiction, and imagination. Early inventions in electronics, engineering, and many other

disciplines have influenced AI. Some early milestones include work in problems solving

which included basic work in learning, knowledge representation, and inference as well

as demonstration programs in language understanding, translation, theorem proving,

associative memory, and knowledge-based systems” (Buchanan 1).

Thanks to this article, readers are able to trace some of the earliest signs of artificial intelligence

and figure out the technology’s early purposes. Some of what he researched showed evidence to

the fact that early artificial intelligence was being used to complete tasks that were difficult to

complete manually at that time. Eventually, over time, people started to see artificial intelligence

as more of a novelty, rather than as a chance to change the efficiency of different things. Some of

these novelty technology ideas came to be in the popular 60s television show The Jetsons by

Hanna-Barbera.

The authors of the article What Can I Help You With?: Infrequent Users Experiences of

Intelligent Personal Assistants took a look at the various uses of these personal assistants. “A
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second recent study explored children’s use of Siri and found that they predominantly ask Siri

questions and requests that focus on getting to know or exploring the agent (e.g. asking it

personal questions), getting specific information about a topic and using Siri to make a call or

send a text, although the last activity was less common. Children also seemed keen to test the

limits of Siri, by asking questions such as “where is mommy?” that were out of its capability”

(Cowan 1). This research demonstrates that people, especially children, are curious as to just

how human and just how helpful these devices are.

They claim to make one’s day-to-day tasks simpler, but are these personal assistants just

making individuals less capable of completing tasks on their own? Sayspring, a branch of the

company Adobe, took a study and found that eighty-four percent of Alexa users regularly use the

device to set times, rather than watch a clock on their own, while over fifty percent of users use

the device to check the time; avoiding look at the clock altogether (Sayspring). The article from

this company went on to state that an additional popular use for the devices is to control other

smart devices in the home; lights, TV, speakers, thermostats, etc. This eliminates the need for

individuals to even get up to do these basic tasks.

Many people who own these in-home devices claim that speaking with them makes them

feel like they are less lonely. Personally, I find myself often speaking to my Amazon Echo Dot

when I am home alone; asking it random questions out of boredom. Additionally, over seventy

percent of people who own these devices use them at least once daily (Digg). All of this is not to

mention the incredible abilities they give to blind or visually impaired individuals with the ability

to check the time, weather, and news while unable to look at the newspaper or at the television to

find this information on their own. Apple phones have settings that allow visually impaired

individuals to scroll over text on their screens and have the phone read the text aloud to them.
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Information about these types of assistance have been made abundantly more accessible, and

well known thanks to the increasing amount of educational information on the visually impaired.

Even youtubers like Molly Burke, a youtube designer and fashion lover who is known for

making content on her own struggles and triumphs dealing with being blind, regularly make

videos that detail their favorite ways to incorporate technology into their day-to-day life.

The authors of the article What Can I Help You With? went on to state “A more

comprehensive, qualitative study was recently presented by Luger and Sellen. Through semi-

structured interviews the study explored how a set of frequent users used IPAs [Intelligent

Processing Automatrons], where they use them and the emotions elicited by their use. Their

work found that, much like other work on voice user interfaces, these frequent users use IPAs in

hands /eyes busy situations (like driving or looking after children) and that the interaction with

the agent was generally seen as a secondary task” (Cowan 2). This article’s research into the

situations the devices are most commonly used in sheds light onto their most common uses. The

article goes on to state that “These users also did not trust the system to do complex tasks like

writing emails or calling someone, down to an apprehension that the system would not get the

task done correctly” (Cowan 3). This shows that some people still believe that there are some

things that are only doable by other people, or most commonly on their own, rather than let a

computer do it for them..

While artificial intelligence is exciting and innovative, it is important to be careful. While

as of right now, the majority of the use of Artificial Intelligence is used for fun or with extreme

caution, there is significant evidence of a possible change in this. Technology will become more

and more advanced. Overall, it has the potential to take a lot of the humanity out of basic day-to-

day tasks. While medical and surgical robots take on the difficult tasks in the industry with
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precision, doctors must be cautious not to forget how to do these procedures themselves in case

of emergency. “By apocalypticism I do not mean simply that the belief that something very bad

may happen, since very bad events are simply a prelude to very good events for most

millennialists, but that the bad event will be cataclysmic, or even the end of history” (Bostrom

77).

The dangers of artificial intelligence and increasing technology have been predicted for

years by some of the world’s brightest minds. During an interview with the BBC, Stephen

Hawking said “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human

race… It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who

are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded.”

Additionally, Claude Shannon, an american mathematician and engineer said “I visualize a time

when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I’m rooting for the machines” (Forbes).

He puts a humorous, and almost sarcastic spin on the topic, but still seems to beg his readers to

heed his prophetic warning. Finally, Gemma Whelan said

“I'm more frightened than interested by artificial intelligence - in fact, perhaps fright and

interest are not far away from one another. Things can become real in your mind, you can

be tricked, and you believe things you wouldn't ordinarily. A world run by automatons

doesn't seem completely unrealistic anymore. It's a bit chilling.”

These technological geniuses’ warnings should be taken fairly seriously, as they were those who

worked closely with high-technology devices and/or even worked to help create them.

From the evidence found in research, it is clear that advancing technology gives

individuals something that provokes caution. Artificial intelligence is creating a novelty situation

more than it is helping complete tasks in a simpler manner. While it is intriguing and fun to play
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around with, the on-the-market artificial intelligence we are all able to have is more of a toy than

it is a helping hand. It is leaving us in less of the Jetsons world, and more of the normal life with

a couple computerized voices mixed in. However, the lack of physical assistance from the

devices is made up for in the novelty of the products. Their uniqueness and genuine “coolness”

makes them fun and desirable.

Works Cited

Buchanan, Bruce G. “A (Very) Brief History of Artificial Intelligence.” AI Magazine.

Calvin, Aaron Paul. “Can Amazon's Alexa Be Your Friend?” Can Amazon's Alexa Be Your

Friend?, digg.com/2017/amazon-alexa-is-not-your-friend.

Cowan, BR. What Can I Help You With?: Infrequent Users Experiences of Intelligent Personal

Assistants.

“Global Catastrophic Risks.” Amazon, Amazon.

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Jaeger, Manfred, et al. Twelfth Scandinavian Conference on Artificial Intelligence: SCAI 2013.

IOS Press, 2013.

Mccarthy, J., and P.j. Hayes. “Some Philosophical Problems from the Standpoint of Artificial

Intelligence.” Readings in Artificial Intelligence, 1981, pp. 431–450.

“The 7 Most Popular Ways to Use Amazon Alexa.” Sayspring, 30 Nov. 2017.