Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

By: Raj Pareek, a telecom professional with 18 years of experience.

“In the early 80’s”

Learning in multi-faceted phenomenon

Learning process includes acquisition of new declarative knowledge, the development of motor and cognitive skills through instructions and practice, the organization of new knowledge into general effective representation and the discoveries of new facts and theories through experimentation and observation. Achieving this has been and remains the most challenging and fascinating long- range goals in Artificial intelligence.

“Current”

Artificial intelligence (AI) is arguably one of the most exhilarating fields in robotics and certainly the most debatable also. Everybody agrees that a robot can work in a muster line, but there's no consensus on whether a robot can ever be brainy.

Like the term "robot" itself, reproduction intelligence is hard to define. Ultimate AI would be a reformation of the human thought process – a man-made machine with our academic skills. This would include the ability to learn just about anything, the skill to reason, and the ability to use philological knowledge and formulate original ideas. Roboticists are nowhere close to attaining this level of artificial intelligence, but they have made a lot of progress with limited AI. Today's AI machines can redo some specific essentials of intellectual ability.

Computers can already solve problems in limited demesnes. The basic idea of AI problem-solving is very meek, though its execution is difficult. First, the AI robot or computer gathers facts about a situation through sensors or human inputs. The computer relates this information to stored data and decides what the information signifies. The computer runs through various likely actions and foresees which action will be most successful based on the placid information. Of course, the computer can only solve problems it's programmed to solve. It doesn't have any generalized analytical ability. Chess computers are one good example of this sort of machine.

Some modern robots also have the ability to learn in a limited capacity. Learning robots recognize if a certain action (moving legs in a certain way, for instance) achieved the desired result (navigating an obstacle). The robot stores this information and attempts the successful action the next time it encounters the same situation. Again, modern computers can only do this in very limited situations. They can't absorb any sort of information like a human can. Some robots can learn by mimicking human actions. In Japan, roboticists have taught a robot to dance by demonstrating the moves themselves.

The real challenge of AI is to comprehend how natural intelligence works. Developing AI isn't like building an artificial heart—scientists don't have a simple, concrete model to work from. We do know that the brain contains billions and billions of neurons and that we think and learn by beginning electrical connections between different neurons. But we don't know exactly how all of these connections add up to higher cognitive or even low-level processes. The complex circuitry seems impenetrable.

Because of this, AI research is largely theoretical. Scientists hypothesize on how and why we learn and think, and they experiment with their ideas using robots. Brooks and his team focus on humanoid robots because they feel that being able to experience the world like a human is vital to developing human-like intelligence. It also makes it calmer for people to interact with the robots, which potentially makes it easier for the robot to learn.

Just as physical robotic design is a handy tool for understanding animal and human structure, AI research is useful for understanding how natural intelligence works. For some roboticists, this insight is the ultimate goal of designing robots. Others imagine a world where we live side by side with intelligent machines and use a diversity of lesser robots for handbook labor, health care, and communication. A number of robotics experts predict that robotic evolution will ultimately turn us into cyborgs—humans integrated with machines. Conceivably, people in the future could load their minds into a sturdy robot and live for thousands of years!

In any case, robots will certainly play a larger role in our daily lives in the future. In the coming decades, robots will gradually move out of the industrial and scientific worlds and enter our daily lives—just like computers had in the 1980s.

The best way to understand robots is to look at specific designs. The links below will show you a variety of robot projects around the world.

India

Realizing India’s potential to shape the global technological landscape, the World Economic Forum has partnered with the Government of India to set up the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution India in Mumbai, Maharashtra. According to the Forum President Børge Brende, the Center will "work to accelerate the development and implementation of governance protocols for emerging science and technology to best serve citizens, society and the public at large. It is worth noting that the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution will adopt a multi-stakeholder approach and pilot practical tools for the agile governance of specific technologies."

The 21st century has witnessed a whole lot of advancements as well as challenges as far as the health sector is concerned. The Indian healthcare system is a perfect summary of this situation. It is on records that about 5% of India’s total budget is focused on the health industry. A statistic by the World Health Organization indicates that a large portion of the health expenses in India, which is about $75, derives its origin from the pockets of individuals and families. One interesting thing to note about the public health sector in India is the fact that it is a direct opposite of what the private sector has to offer. It is on record that the private health sector in India is one of the major revenue earners in the country with billions of dollars being gotten via medical tourism.

A report by the United Nations indicates that in India, 48 children of the 1,000 newborns actually die before they get to the age of 5. This is without a doubt one of the highest mortality rates that exist in South-Asia. This situation is further not helped by public sector spending in Health.

The cost of getting medical care in the private facilities is about four times what it would ordinarily cost in the public facilities. However, according to a statistic by the World Health Organization which indicates that despite the disparity in cost which appears to favour the public health sector, about 79 percent of the urban dwellers prefer making use of the private health facilities while 72 percent of rural dwellers are covered by the private health sector as well.

It, therefore, suffices to say that the two major challenges facing the Indian health sector are the inadequate quality of health services in the public sector as well as the huge costs obtainable in the private health facilities.

One prominent thing about the Indian healthcare sector is the fact that it has always been quite slow as far as familiarizing to digital technology is worried. This is mostly a result of the complex and fragmented nature of the industry. However, with the fact that digital technology is becoming a lot cheaper, there appears to be a need for a change in viewpoint.

As thrilling a prospect as digital health care may be, it faces a huge challenge which is the fact that there is a huge limitation as far as accepting new systems is worried. This is mainly due to the fact that there is a great need to keep a balance amid cost and excellence.

India has not yet met up with the WHO minimum healthcare workforce and infrastructure.

Moreover, it is authoritative that health care providers must be willing to take a leap of faith in this direction. Also, they must have a good hold of the issues that will have the greatest transformational effect on the sector.

In addition to this, healthcare companies have to find a way of assimilating the existing IT set-up as well as business models with the latest technological novelties with a view to delivering top quality customer consummation.

One other challenge of adopting the digital approach as far as the health sector is concerned is ignorance and illiteracy. A large number of healthcare providers are behind in the digital sector when compared with other sectors such as telecoms and travel. There seems to be little understanding of the benefits that come with the adoption of this system.

There is also the challenge of limited local talents as well as the lack of focus on the digital revolution by those who ought to be concerned. This is in addition to the relatively high level of illiteracy in India which may slow down the acceptance of digital advancements in the health sector.

Certainly, the advantages that come with the use of the data and mobile technologies will only be felt when it is deployed with the customer at the centre of it all, which, therefore necessitates a regulatory framework by the government in partnership with other relevant stakeholders. It, therefore, suffices to say that the digitization of the health sector will gradually effect a change in focus from the volume focus to value. Also, investors in the sector will only be willing to invest more when they are better educated about the benefits and profitability of its application.

Startups transforming healthcare sector in India

The health sector in India has seen the rise of a number of startups that have taken it upon themselves to bring innovations in sub-sectors such as Artificial Intelligence in the health industry, mHealth (which is perhaps the largest application of digital healthcare), telemedicine,  patient data storage as well as remote diagnosis.

Companies offering services based upon technology, commercial models as well as data analytics are on the rise with a view to effecting positive change in the Indian health sector. This has been further boosted by the government’s policy which seeks to encourage startups. Based upon a joint study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) as well as KPMG, about 8% of monetary investments in Business to consumer (B2C) startups in India find their roots in the healthcare sector.

There has been an influx of investment as far as the application of Artificial Intelligence in the health sector is concerned in India. These startups offer the customers services that range from the detection of cancer to the process involved in finding a new health care provider, although, this is mainly recognized in the urban areas, its application appears to be gradually gaining inroads into the rural settlements.

There is an evolution as far as health care delivery is concerned on a global scale. It is, therefore, very important that India is not left out of this move.

However, it is vital to point out that for there to be any rational progress in this regard in the Indian society, the applicable stakeholders such as the government, the health care providers (public and private) as well as the general masses must be willing to understand how it works as well as the enormous benefits they stand to gain from adopting the digital approach as far as the health sector is concerned.

It should also be noted that with the poor ratio of doctors to patients as well as the relatively low inroad of healthcare services into the rural areas joined with the low number of people actually medically insured, healthcare startups definitely have a high chance of controlling the healthcare system of India.