40 I ICT TODAY
capabilities of an oncologist,
High may drop the term augmented
intelligence in recognition that
Watson has become a truly high
level artificial intelligence system.
Will the patient, however, trust
Dr. Watson, the physician that
would forever lack the ability to
sympathize and empathize? Other
terms often used synonymously
with AI include machine learning,
informatics and knowledge-based
system. These terms were introduced
by AI research universities to
continue receiving grants when
government funding specifically for
AI grants went dry in the 1980s.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:
THE RESURGENCE OF AN
OLD TECHNOLOGY
Ask anyone to cite examples
of AI and the answers, especially
among Millennials, would likely
include Alexa, Google Home (AI
is minimally used for voice
recognition and some machine
learning), robotics, and drone
technology. Most everyone would
answer the autonomous car or
vehicle. Many, if not most, would
consider these as breakthroughs
in current technology. For the
evolution of the autonomous
vehicle, they would be nearly
100 years off.
In 1921, the military introduced
the first, and perhaps ugliest,
unmanned radio-controlled vehicle
that strolled the streets of Dayton,
Ohio as shown in Figure 1.
Subsequently, Francis P. Houdina,
an Army engineer, unveiled his
driverless American Wonder, a 1926
Chandler sedan (Figure 2) that
captured radio signals to operate
FIGURE 1: The RCA radio-controlled car. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons).
Source: Discover Magazine.com.
is potentially more dangerous than
nukes—caused some companies
to thwart the gloom and doom
associated with the term “artificial
intelligence,” made worse by the
resurfacing of renowned scientist
Stephen Hawking’s claim that full
AI and efforts to create thinking
machines could spell the end of the
human race. IBM, heavily invested
in AI and healthcare with the
Watson cognitive system, introduced
the term “augmented intelligence.”
However, when analyzing Watson
for IBM’s oncology program, it is
evident that the system is based
on cognitive computing, because
it “assists” the physician in
making his/her own patient
treatment decisions.
“A true artificial intelligence
system would have ‘told’ the
oncologist which course of action
and treatment to take based on its
analysis of a huge database of
medical information.”5 At the 2016
Watson Analyst Day, Rob High,
IBM’s CTO for Watson explained,
“What it’s really about is
involvement of a human in the
loop,” and he described Watson
as “augmented intelligence” rather
than artificial intelligence.6
“Watson has bigger ambitions
than a clinician's assistant, however.
Its medical knowledge is around that
of a first year medical student,
according to IBM, and the company
hopes to have Watson pass the
general medical licensing board
exams in the not too distant
future.”7 Upon graduation when
Watson has the equivalent
knowledge and decision making
/Magazine.com