Siri co-creator talks about how artificial intelligence can improve our lives

Virtual assistants

Today, virtual smart assistants are a common phenomenon; they are a kind of intermediaries between humans and artificial intelligence. For most of us, this technology just makes life a little easier. But for people with disabilities, it becomes a salvation from loneliness, helping them communicate and maintain relationships with others.

Cancer diagnostics

When a doctor suspects a patient has cancer, he sends tissue samples for analysis to a pathologist who examines them under a microscope. Pathologists see hundreds of samples a day, millions of cells. To facilitate their work, the researchers created an experimental classifier program with artificial intelligence. It looks at images of the samples and determines the presence of cancer cells. The program worked well, but still it could not replace a person.

But when human and AI efforts were combined, the diagnostic accuracy reached 99.5%. Thus, it was possible to eliminate 85% of the mistakes that a pathologist would have made if working alone. It turned out that people are better at detecting false results, and the program is better at detecting hard-to-recognize cases. But it was only teamwork that helped make the breakthrough.

Design

Imagine that you are an engineer who needs to create a new model of a drone. You open a computer-aided design program, define shape and materials, and then analyze characteristics. This will give you one model. And AI will generate thousands of models from the same data.

This approach will revolutionize design. The human only needs to be told what the model should do, and the machine will provide options. Then the engineer, based on his experience and knowledge, will choose one of the most suitable options.

Improving cognitive ability

Take memory, for example. This is the basis of human intelligence, but how imperfect it is! We forget details, places, names. With age, memory only deteriorates.

But what if we had memory like a computer? What if we could remember every person we met during our life, his name, hobbies, what we talked about when we last saw each other? Of course, for most of us, this expanded memory won't do much good. But it can change the lives of millions of people with Alzheimer's and dementia who live in complete isolation due to memory problems.

What if we memorized everything we read and listen to? Then, with the help of AI, we would extract the necessary information from memory, having only the slightest clue, and easily notice the connections between different ideas.

We could remember the consequences of every food we eat and every medicine we take. We ourselves would collect and analyze data on our well-being. Imagine how this would change the treatment of allergies and chronic diseases.

We can choose how AI will enter our lives: automate our workplaces and replace us, or work with us, expanding our capabilities.

Tom Gruber