The term “artificial intelligence” was coined fairly recently in 1955, but the idea of smart machines that do our bidding has far deeper roots, going back to the ancient myths of Greece, India, and China. Perhaps that’s why AI has such an impact on our imagination, and why, in recent years, there’s been so much hype surrounding the technology.
The Real-World AI Issue
How artificial intelligence and machine learning are affecting technology right now
But AI is not a myth, nor is it a magical machine. It’s a technology like any other, that, after decades of research, has reached a new plateau of productivity. Cheap processing power and abundant data have made this possible, and AI and machine learning are now useful tools in a diverse range of fields, including astronomy, health care, transportation, and music.
After years of promise, AI is finally becoming useful
After years of promise, AI is finally becoming useful. But what usually happens to useful technologies is that they disappear. We forget about the things that just work, and we shouldn’t let that happen to AI. Any technology destined to change the world needs scrutiny, and AI, with its combination of huge imaginative presence and very real, very dangerous failings, needs that scrutiny more than most.
So, for the AI Issue at The Verge, we’re taking a closer look at some of the ways artificial intelligence and machine learning are affecting technology right now — because it’s too late to understand something after it’s changed the world.
Understanding AI
Applications of AI
- Meet the scientists who are training AI to diagnose mental illness
- How AI is changing photography
- Can AI help crack the code of fusion power?
- The next frontier in hiring is AI-driven
- Porn: you know it when you see it, but can a computer?
- AI could be the perfect tool for exploring the Universe
- A day in the life of a Waymo self-driving taxi
- Self-driving cars are headed toward an AI roadblock
- Sharing passwords for a video streaming site? This company will use AI to track you down
- How AI is solving one of music’s most expensive problems
- Google invented the AI version of a Hallmark card
- Automated background checks are deciding who’s fit for a home
- AI can make art now, but artists aren’t afraid
AI in Pop Culture
- The god box: an oral history of Avatara
- Netflix’s I Am Mother is a slow, tense movie about how we love and fear AI
- Virtual creators aren’t AI — but AI is coming for them
- The AI video game character that influenced an industry
- Inside the larps that let human players experience AI life
- Why CAPTCHAs have gotten so difficult