Artificial Intelligence: The Next Big Thing Since the dawn of
the personal computer, engineers have been striving to enhance
their machines’ ability to interact with the world around them.
The first task was to replicate the sights and sounds around
them. Originally starting with cartoonish 8-color images and
clicking noises, this ability has been refined over the years to
the point where we can now type in any address in the United
States and get an interactive, 360-degree view from that
location using Google Maps. 3-D printers allow us to conjure
tangible objects out of plastic in minutes with the mere touch
of a button. 3-D TVs can trick my brain into thinking a sword is
being hurled at me. It’s all pretty incredible. But teaching a
computer to analyze and understand the real world — a.k.a.
Artificial Intelligence — has proven much more difficult. A
solid 10 years after I first tried dictating a social studies
paper to my computer, I still groan when I hear an automated
Customer Service message ask me in R