Accelerating Performance with the Artificial Intelligence of Things
Figure 1: The Evolution of AI
The term artificial intelligence was coined in
1956, but AI has become more popular today
thanks to increased data volumes, advanced
algorithms and improvements in computing
power and storage.
While Hollywood movies and science fiction
novels depict AI as human-like robots that
take over the world, the current evolution of
AI technologies isn’t that scary – or quite
that smart. Instead, AI has evolved to
provide many specific benefits in every
industry.
Early AI research in the 1950s explored
topics like problem solving and symbolic
methods. In the 1960s, the US Department
of Defense took interest in this type of work
and began training computers to mimic basic
human reasoning. For example, the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) completed street mapping projects
in the 1970s. And DARPA produced
intelligent personal assistants in 2003, long
before Siri, Alexa or Cortana were household
names.
The Potential of AI and the Intelligence of
Things
AI-powered connected smart devices and
environments learn from a greater network
of data sources (including each other) and
contribute to collective intelligence. There
are numerous examples across industries
that illustrate this potential:
This early work paved the way for the
automation and formal reasoning that we
see in computers today, including decision
support systems and smart search systems
that can be designed to complement and
augment human abilities.
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Utilities and manufacturers can
detect underperforming assets and
predict the need for maintenance or
automated shutdown before costly
or hazardous equipment failures
occur.