A mind of its own

Colin Angle, chairman, CEO and co-founder of iRobot, envisions that future homes will essentially be large robots that people live in. A manufacturer of home cleaning robotics, iRobot has sold more than 15 million units around the world since it was founded in 1990.

"A true smart home will one day have hundreds of connected devices in it. Every light bulb, thermostat, television, radio and heating system will be connected. When you are at home, the lights and heating will automatically be switched on. If you typically watch television in a room at a particular time of the day, the device will also switch itself on. The house of the future will be able to better serve the needs of the resident. We would no longer have to manage hundreds of technology products ourselves," he said.

"The Chinese government is doing a very smart thing by making robotics a priority for the country. The goal of the plan is to increase technology in manufacturing to allow factories to work smarter and more efficiently. So, even as wages increase, manufacturing jobs in China can still be preserved," he added.

AI has proven in recent times that it is capable of doing more than just processing complex problems at greater speeds.

In the United States, The Associated Press has been using AI to generate sports articles. In January, a robot called Xiao Nan at Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily took just one second to write a short article on the Spring Festival travel rush.

Other robots have even demonstrated an ability to be creative in literature. In May, Microsoft announced that its AI chatbot Xiaoice, which means "little ice" in Chinese, published a book of poems. Over in Japan, a robot co-wrote a short novel titled The Day A Computer Writes A Novel. While much of the work was done by humans, the project nevertheless shed light on AI's potential.

"AI programs have often been used to solve problems that have answers, such as Go and shogi. In the future, I'd like to expand AI's potential (so it resembles) human creativity," Hitoshi Matsubara, the leader of the team that created the robot, told the Yomiuri Shimbun.

One of the most high-profile achievements by AI recently was accomplished by AlphaGo, a Go-playing program created by DeepMind, when it defeated the world's top-ranked player Ke Jie in three consecutive games in May. Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba Group, commented that the result was a tragedy for mankind.

He also noted that the world's most effective CEO in the future could be a robot as machines do not get affected by emotions like humans do.

"Machines can do what people can't. We must make machines our best partner, rather than letting them replace us," he said.

Some of the world's most prominent people have similarly warned about the ramifications of AI.

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, once said that dabbling in AI is akin to "summoning the demon" while legendary theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said that AI "could spell the end of the human race".

Zhu offered a different perspective to the matter, suggesting that the fear of robots spelling doom for mankind is irrational.

"AI is the current trend and the future. The reality of AI permeating different aspects of our lives is similar to the evolution of the internet. It is possible that we will one day find it difficult to imagine a life without AI, just like how we cannot live or work without an internet connection today," he said.

wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn