Artificial intelligence and machine learning are words that evoke a sense of inhumanity, of cold and mechanical functions. In reality, AI is coming closer and closer to reaching human understanding through capabilities like deep learning and natural language processing (NLP).
With early chatbots, you had to ask exactly the right question to get the matched right answer. But with rapid advancements in NLP and deep learning, chatbots and virtual assistants are becoming more and more sophisticated.
For example, Google Assistant, debuted in 2016, has shown remarkable ability in mimicking human speech patterns. This allowed it to book a woman’s haircut at a real salon, which Google demonstrated at Google I/O 2018.
Language understanding and generation
Natural language understanding is a subfield of NLP that goes beyond the structural understanding of language to help us interpret intent, resolve context, and truly understand the nuance of human language. Natural language generation (NLG) creates well-formed human language output. This has the potential to turn a customer journey into a much smoother experience.
This means that with an NLP/AI driven chatbot or virtual assistant, you don’t have to ask exactly the right question. Instead, the AI could help you understand what questions you should ask. Ulrika Jägare from Ericsson, a SAS client working at the forefront of the analytics economy, reflects on this below.
AI evolution
The longer these systems operate and interact, the smarter they become. Just like self-driving cars, the algorithms become more intelligent the more they drive and integrate data on the road.
Even though AI is rapidly evolving, it works best when humans and machines work together. Humans still excel when it comes to soft skills like empathy, curiosity, and creativity. Humans are also better at strategy and innovation, being good listeners, and thinking critically. If the AI is intelligent enough to understand when human assistance is preferable, we will have strong and successful teamwork.
Even though AI is rapidly evolving, it works best when humans and machines work together. Humans still excel when it comes to soft skills like empathy, curiosity, and creativity. Click To TweetRead more about NLP and machine learning here.
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Before giving machines a sense of morality, humans have to first define morality in a way computers can process. Dr. Vyacheslav Polonski, a well-respected AI researcher at Oxford University, has suggested that creating the knowledge rules and algorithms needed to define an ethically aligned thinking machine is a difficult, but not impossible task for an analytics company... Learn more and follow the discussion on the SAS Yammer channel for "AI Ethics".
Compelling and Frank