AI is Here To Stay

I have met the concept of artificial intelligence and completed my first artificial intelligence project when I met Lisp programming language during my studies as a computer science student years ago. Actually it started as a homework but I got so drawn to it that I could not help myself to continue to work on this fascinating topic. My final work was far away from passing the Turing test which aims to determine whether the intelligence in the background was real or artificial. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining and enlightening experience.

Artificial intelligence or short for AI, is a broad name for computer software that has the ability to perform intelligent tasks such as intelligence, learning, decision making, problem solving, perception and understanding of spoken languages. Apart from this definition, we may also mention applied artificial intelligence software designed for specific purposes, such as artificial intelligence software, which can only play chess or which is designed to evaluate only stock market data.

Today, most of well known technology firms are allocating the biggest share from their budget for AI researches. AI projects may vary in size and content. There are so many concurrent AI projects are being worked  by various sized companies and institutions and the projects may vary from modeling the impacts of global climate change to traffic modeling in major cities, from developing self-driving cars to space research projects, from health research, to translating between spoken languages, from smart chat companions for service industry to making smart predictions from customer behaviors for retail industry and many more. Almost everyday, we hear another astonishing news about the development of AI as it gets more advanced in time we will probably hear on the news that it beat the go champion as it did to chess champion years ago or it started to express itself more artistically such as composing songs or writing movie scripts.

It seems that artificial intelligence will also help to exponentially increase the effect of almost all the emerging technologies in the coming years. It will always come to the forefront in the more efficient use of cloud computing, data analytics, big data and, of course, the virtual reality. Artificial intelligence, regardless of the sectors, will continue to increase its impact on our lives in every area that technology already has an impact.


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Schedule a Walk

Many of us, as office workers, spend great deal of time sitting at our desks for long hours. Sitting for prolonged hours do not do any good to any of us. Not only, it increases our stress level and risk of having health problems but also decreases our metabolism speed and our productivity as a result. Years ago when smart phones were not very popular and wearable technologies were not on the market yet, I bought a simple mechanical pedometer to measure my daily activity. Aside from my gym routine, I wanted to see how many steps I was taking on a regular day. My car is parked right in front of my home and after a short drive I park in front of my work place. I sit all day long in front of my computer and do my short commute in the evening to go back home. I was doing my regular gym activities but take that aside, I found out that on a regular day, I was not active at all. My step count was less that 5000 steps a day which may be considered as a "sedentary lifestyle." I needed to do something to change my daily routine.

My workplace is in an industrial zone, there are no green parks, not even a decent walking route, and however, I decided to take walking breaks in the middle of the day right before my lunch. I started taking 20 minutes fast pacing walks around the neighborhood which added almost 3000 steps to my daily step count. I have been doing this for years now, if I am not preoccupied with something extremely important or if it is not raining heavily, I am taking a 20 minute walk almost every day.

I do not see this as a calorie burning activity or a replacement of my daily exercise routine; I continue doing my regular exercises. This is just a short time off for getting away from what I do, clearing my mind, boosting my energy level to return back to work more focused and for a chance to get exposed to the sun and fresh air. I found out that other than increasing my energy level and concentration, these short walks improve my problem solving capability and increase my creativity.

Many people take smoking breaks, coffee or tea breaks and get away from their desks frequently. I highly recommend taking a walking break once a day which would facilitate harmonizing your mind and body, replenish your concentration and focus and finally enhance your productivity. Once you start moving, you will be more open to the idea of moving more and being more active.


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Go: Just Another Board Game...

The game of go, dating back 4000 years ago, is perhaps the oldest game in the history. Its most important feature is that the rules have never been changed since the first time it was played. It was originated in China and later it was played in Japan, Korea and other far east countries. Today, including western countries, it is widely known and played by many. It takes only a few minutes to learn the rules of the game, but it may take a lifetime to master.

Go is played on a square board, marked with 19 horizontal and 19 vertical lines. Each of two contestants, in turn, places a stone, one playing black stones, the other white, onto the board--ultimately attempting to surround the opponent's pieces. At the end of the game, the player who controls the greatest territory on the board is the victor.

Although the rules of the game itself is quite simple, high probability calculations could take the game toward unpredictable directions. Probabilities in the game of go is 10⁵⁴¹  times more than chess. Go always amazes people who are interested in computer science, mathematics or artificial intelligence. After a great struggle and heavy investments, IBM’s big bleu super computer defeated chess champion Kasparov in the game of chess. However, despite very large cash prizes and great research, even the best computers cannot be a match for an average go player.

According to American Go Association:

• Go is the easiest game to learn
• Go is the most difficult game to master
• Go is the oldest game still played in its original form.
• Go is about building, not destroying
• You always know where you fit in: a beginner starts from the level called 50 Kyu and could advance up to 1 Kyu. When mastered, a player can be 1st Dan master. highest degree of mastery is 7th Dan.

Koreans say, playing a single game of go with someone is equivalent to spending a year with him or her. You could learn a lot about your opponent’s character during a game.

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