Introduction

I have been interested in Artificial Intelligence from my early days as a video game programmer.

Even back then AI research was focused on winning games against humans. There have been a few AI winters, periods of little progress in the field, since then. However with recent innovations, the power of this technology is now undeniable and awesome. AI has become ubiquitous, so much so that we fail to even recognize its presence.

Because AI is so powerful and relevant to almost every aspect of our society, economy and even humanity, I believe everyone, even those without a deep technical background, need to have a working level understanding about how it works. Everyone should know its capabilities and limitations, since how and when AI is deployed may directly affect our rights and economics.

This blog is inspired by my speaking and lecturing on this topic over the past few years as a Visiting Scholar/ Lecturer at UC Berkeley, Business and Law schools. I believe it’s essential that business and policy leaders can make the best use of this amazing technology.

In this series of articles, we’ll look at many applications of AI, and we’ll see when it works really well in some areas and is a dismal failure in others. I hope to instill a better sense for assessing which kinds of real world problems and industry sectors are ripe for adopting AI. In addition, we’ll look at practical considerations about how to make AI successful, including keeping humans in the loop to handle corner cases and changing conditions will be essential for the foreseeable future. Likewise, it is imperative that we consider the ethical issues raised by this awesome technology, including unintended consequences of its application.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or comments, and especially if you are considering launching an AI startup or program within your company.