By Nicole Schmidt
Back in the ‘70s, renowned mathematician James Lighthill predicted that machines would never be capable of reasoning or even simple tasks, like being able to checkmate a chess pro. Fifty years later, artificial intelligence programs have not only defeated the world’s top chess players, but they can match — and in some cases, outperform — humans when it comes to art, science and even companionship. Here’s a look at nine outrageous things AI can do.
1. Impersonate Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh’s painting technique was considered to be so revolutionary that art critics thought it was inimitable, but scientists from Germany’s Bethge Lab invented a program that can replicate his iconic brush strokes. The AI system analysed the colours, shadows and highlights of “Starry Night,” then used the same techniques to create an original painting of the Neckar river in Tuebingen, Germany.
An AI combined the content of a photograph of the Neckarfront in Tubingen, Germany, by Andreas Praefcke, left, with the style of The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, centre, to produce the new work on the right.
An AI combined the content of a photograph of the Neckarfront in Tubingen, Germany, by Andreas Praefcke, left, with the style of The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, centre, to produce the new work on the right.
2. Compose classical music
Most creatives will argue that human emotion — the one thing computers lack — is the key to producing meaningful art. But some companies, like Aiva Technologies, are challenging that notion. The startup created an “Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist” that learned music theory by studying a large library of famous composers (including Bach, Beethoven and Mozart). The machine is now capable of creating original classical melodies in a matter of minutes, many of which have been used in films and video games.
3. Make Barbie come to life
Barbie’s AI-powered doll is something straight out of a Toy Story movie. She has a tiny microphone concealed in her necklace that can analyze speech and respond accordingly (all in less than a second). If the ability to have a coherent conversation wasn’t impressive enough, she can also “remember” what children tell her and refer to it in future exchanges. (Whether the toy falls into the “cool” or “creepy” camp is still up for debate.)
4. Be your romantic partner
Harmony AI took notes from Black Mirror to create their AI-powered sex doll. Just as clients can decide whether they want a blonde or brunette, they can also customize their doll’s personality. Similar to Hello Barbie (but the R-rated version), the doll uses Bluetooth to hear and respond. Since it comes with built-in memory, its makers say it can develop meaningful relationships with its user over time — and it could be all yours for a cool $20,000.
5. Make you dance
Using just a single full-body photograph, researchers at Nvidia, a California-based gaming company, can turn anyone into a backup dancer from one of Beyonce’s music videos. Their software learns mapping functions from pre-recorded videos and applies those movements to photographs.
6. Turn you into a digital puppet
One of AI’s biggest ethical conundrums is the “deepfake” — a fake video or audio recording that looks and sounds like the real deal. Similar to how Nvidia researchers create their dancing videos, the software can essentially perform a virtual head and body transplant by decoding and then reconstructing a brand new face. There is also software that can replicate someone’s voice, or essentially turn them into a digital puppet. Some of the results (Beck Bennett impersonating a shirtless Vladimir Putin) are hilarious, while others (hyper-realistic revenge porn) are downright terrifying. Back in 2017, a particularly realistic speech delivered by an AI Barack Obama made the rounds on the internet.
7. Detect illness via smell
In a few years, diagnosing an illness could be as easy as taking a breathalyzer test. A team of scientists from around the globe have developed an artificial intelligence system that can detect 17 diseases — including Parkinson’s, Crohn’s and several types of cancer — using only a breath sample. The “NaNose” was trained to identify patterns in the chemical makeup of specific diseases by analyzing more than 8,000 patients scents. Right now, the system has an 86 per cent accuracy rate.
8. Read your mind
In what’s been hailed as the “last privacy frontier,” Facebook is working on creating a device that can read your mind. The real life veritaserum (for the non-Harry Potter fans, that’s truth serum) can decode brain signals and translate them into words. The short-term goal is to use the technology to help patients with paralysis, but eventually, Facebook wants to make a wearable headset available to the masses that would enable users to control digital devices with their minds.
9. Find missing children
Last year, police in New Delhi used a new facial recognition software to capture images of 45,000 kids around the city, then find matches in India’s database of missing and vulnerable children. They were able to identify 3,000 missing children in just four days.
