AI and automation are changing our lives in unprecedented ways; from reforming the education system, providing lightning-fast information at our fingertips, and even changing the political landscape as we know it. But what else is happening we might not expect? Here are the most exciting events happening right now that may come as a pleasant (or unpleasant) surprise, depending on your own unique circumstances and perspective.
1. Birdwatching
Not exactly what we expected to start off the list, but fascinating right!? The Bird Buddy Smart Feeder Pro is powered by AI to identify your feathered friends that frequent your home. It has solar powered capabilities, accuracy in species identification, and possibly best of all, no subscription fees. It makes sure that what you see from your phone app is sharp and clear, with little noise. This does mean that you won’t receive as many notifications of a bird visit as some other camera/app combinations, but the ones you will get are crystal clear.
2. Creating New Cabinet Positions/Offices in Politics
Now, I promise we’re not here to sell AI products to you! This next one is important and may affect you personally someday (if it hasn’t already).
If AI is going to make the government more efficient, you need have people in office to run the operations, right? Introducing Tai Phan, Oklahoma’s first Chief AI and Technology Officer. He was instrumental in contributing to Oklahoma’s IT plan back in September and will lead the state in generating faster and more successful outcomes. Oklahoma isn’t the first state to set up shop in the AI sector and create an official officer. North Carolina and Georgia both created AI officer roles this year, and Vermont, Georgia, and Maryland have held officers in their own cabinets for longer periods. According to the official statement about Phan’s appointment, the new role is “a remarkable opportunity to rethink how government operates by bringing forward innovation with trust by design to strengthen our mission, improve services and deliver meaningful, measurable impact for the people of Oklahoma.”
Read more about the expected outcomes of the position and how states plan to automate their objectives in this govtech.com article.
3. Debunking Conspiracy Theories
Society says that conspiracy theorists “are too far gone, you’ll never change their minds.” But scientists of Carnegie Mellon and Cornell universities beg to differ.
This year they published a study in the journal Science involving over 2,000 conspiracy believers having an 8-minute conversation with an AI model. Subjects of the study wrote prompts about conspiracy theories that they believed in earnest, followed by any anecdotal evidence that may have persuaded them to believe the theories. The AI model’s job was to convince the prompter to not believe that theory anymore by providing authoritative and expert sources. The results led to a 20% decrease in the confidence level of the participants involved, and even 1 in 4 participants were fully convinced of the truth and didn’t believe their theory anymore! Better yet, the model also did not attempt to debunk theories tested about MK Ultra and the CIA’s human experiments from the 1950’s (which have since been proven true).
In a world of accessible information, it’s easy for people to feel overwhelmed; it’s difficult to know who to trust. People can be persuaded by the facts, it’s just that AI is faster at countering and researching them faster than regular human interaction (although human to human conversation can also have a positive impact). You can read more about the study at MIT’s Technology Review, and even give their AI model a try for yourself at DebunkBot.
4. Discovering New Parts of the Human Brain
For decades scientists thought that our brains had roughly 52 sections. But an AI program established by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Allen Institute for Brain Science, established that it’s more like 1,300!
The premise began with figuring out how to scan and analyze thousands of data sets related to brain function; data that was extremely useful but impossible to manually scan and interpret. The newly developed technology has allowed us to gain precise insight as to how specific neural cells interact with their immediate environment, and also throughout the total brain organ itself. Future implications? Possible cures for Alzheimer’s and brain trauma. David Traster, who wasn’t involved in the study but helps run the Neurologic Wellness Institute, states that the days of nicely compartmentalized section maps of the brain are over. In regards to how the brain heals from physical and psychological injury, he says “Many deficits after trauma are reversible…because these silent regions can be re-recruited into active brain networks.” This is science speak for “the better we understand the city’s backstreets, the better we can restore power when parts of it go dark.”, according to Stav Dimitropoulos, a writer for Popular Science who reported on the study.
We feel like we’ve grown a few wrinkles in our brains ourselves! We’ll be sure to keep track of AI news and other technological developments. Now go forth, look at the birds, talk to your lawmakers about AI, stay wary of conspiracy theories, and appreciate the complexity of your elastic and now, better learned, brain!
