The Future of Artificial Intelligence

By Catalina Zou

Technological innovations are growing more than ever, and artificial intelligence has greatly shaped our communities. AIs have a great influence in our lives, so Dr. Joy Zhang was invited as the November 2020 speaker to discuss the past, present, and future of AIs.

Dr. Zhang started his speech by talking about Herbert Simon, the founder and father of artificial intelligence. Herbert Simon had a vision for bringing computers into everyday life, and believed that computers could have the same intelligence as humans. He went on to study and develop AIs, and he received multiple recognitions for his contributions. Dr. Zhang then goes on to explain different well-known AI algorithms, including an early chess algorithm and algorithms dealing with a problem known as the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

Computational linguistics has also been a huge part of AI studies. Computational linguistics is involved with language structures and translations. To be able to understand and translate natural or human languages, a computer must be able to understand a language’s structure. However, due to the ambiguity of languages, teaching AIs to comprehend different languages has been a challenge. In recent years, there have been significant advances in language comprehension through deep learning, which is applied in our daily lives.

Today, there are limitless applications of AIs. Dr. Zhang lists a few common applications, including facial recognition, language translations, and self-driving cars. As we come to the future of AIs, Dr. Zhang emphasizes that AI algorithms evolve with computational power and data, so future growth depends on future generations. We are the future of AIs!