How to raise AI like your kids

Sandeep Chouhan, EVP Technology and Operations, Mashreq, speaks at the Digitrans 2017 forum organised by Khaleej Times and MITSloan Management Review GCC in Dubai on Wednesday.

Years ago, a "robot" was just that - a robot, meant to do repetitive tasks that, from a human perspective, looked dull.
What a difference seven years makes. Robots and artificial intelligence are 'brainier' now. Heck, it's even beating humans in the Chinese game Go nowadays, one of the most complex board games ever created.
As intricate as it may seem, robotics and AI are comparable to the persons we adore the most: our children.
"If you think about it, the race towards AI is like the race to become a human," Sandeep Chouhan, executive vice-president for technology and operations at Mashreq, said in his presentation during DigiTrans 2017 in Dubai on Wednesday.
"Think of it like children; when they first arrive in the world, they are taught very basic mechanical tasks, like walking."
"Very quickly, the child begins to learn natural language capabilities - 'yes' and 'no' - then is taught how to speak and start making sentences. They start to develop cognitive skills to perform basic tasks."
This is basically how companies develop robotics and AI, Chouhan stresses: these technologies are in that zone of evolution, the way a person journeys from being an infant to becoming a toddler, then on to being a teen to becoming an adult."
"We're seeing a similar pace of evolution in AI - it's very human-like," he added.
Indeed, the same can be said for robotics and AI. In Chouhan's presentation, he showcased the five generations of robots' evolution to AI.
Back in 2010, robots were built for routine, repetitive tasks. But as years went on, it progressed: in 2012, AI with natural language processing was developed, making these machines more engaging and social. Three years later and five years later, natural language generation and machine learning, respectively, were added to the fold, allowing these AI systems to respond in a more personalised way. Come 2018, it is expected that intelligent learning will come mainstream in AI systems. Matter of factly, we are already seeing this today, in AI-powered systems such as Apple's Siri, Samsung's Bixby and Google's Assistant, which continue to learn and become more personal as it is used more.
In the context of the banking environment, Chouhan says, "the race is for groundbreaking service quality".
"Customer is always king; whoever gets a satisfied customer wins the game. 
But despite the rapid rise of robotics and AI, there's no replacement for its creators: humans.
Chouhan points out that while indeed "digital workers" automate many tasks being handled by persons before, there's actually more to what meets the eye.
"Human workers [still] need to continuously monitor digital workers," he adds.
And "digital workers allow human workers to do much more." -alvin@khaleejtimes.com