AI 5 years away from becoming evolutionary
CEO and Co-founder of Sentient Technologies, Antoine Blondeau, has said that he imagines a world with "Evolutionary Intelligent agents", which he describes as systems that would evolve by themselves. They would be able to write their own code, creating trillions of computer programs that could solve complex issues across various sectors, such as healthcare, energy, finance and e-commerce. Blondeau believes that in five years time, data scientists will be closer to creating AI that is capable of making better decisions by creating its own pre-emptive solutions.  

Next, imagine if this massive AI system could evolve and adapt to its environment like living species do, to get better at the tasks it's presented with.

The possibilities of such a system would be extremely exciting. "Evolutionary Intelligence agents" would evolve by themselves -- trained to survive and thrive by writing their own code -- spawning trillions of computer programs to solve incredibly complex problems such as those in healthcare, energy, finance and e-commerce.

This is possible, and is happening today. I'll reveal all in my talk.

What would you like to achieve by speaking at WIRED2015?

I'd like to leave people with a greater understanding of what AI is and is not and get them thinking about where it will help us humans and be valuable in society. There has been a lot of scaremongering going on in the industry about the potential threats that AI may pose to humankind -- but I stand with Yann LeCun on this. We're not even remotely close to being there.

What we are close to is breeding "intelligent agents." But let's not think about this as Terminator-style robots, instead think of specialised computer programs which write their own code and make decisions, solving specific problems, and leveraging massive amounts of data no human could possibly fathom. These agents elevate our status as humans, they make better decisions than we can, or they present us with outcomes to help us see more, decide better and act faster. Siri is an intelligent agent, so perhaps people are getting used to this concept.

Who are you looking forward to hearing and/or meeting at WIRED2015?

The diversity is great! I look forward to meeting the panellists on the "Complex world" panel, as international relations and societal issues are potentially helped by AI in the mid- to longer term. Other themes, such as "Designing the interface," "Turning data into understanding," "How ideas are born," "The power of music," are very relevant to some of what we do -- and I will be an eager listener.

Where do you see the AI software sector in five years' time? What advances and challenges might be in the pipeline between now and then?

Five years from now, we'll see AI take a bigger role in making decisions, creating pre-emptive solutions, and delivering insights. Society will become much more efficient as a result. Think logistics, e-commerce, healthcare, finance -- in all these domains and others, we'll start to see massive gains from AI. We'll be able to leverage AI systems to help get things to where they need to go faster and cheaper, we'll be able to enable people to see and buy things they weren't even aware existed or even knew they wanted, we'll be able to help predict fatal diseases before they get past the point of no return. We will have full-blown AI-based investment firms.