ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE

My first job was unloading tractor trailers at a grocery store. Items stacked to the ceiling, not wrapped in clear plastic and on pallets like today. Every item, can goods, soap powder boxes, jars of pickles, etc. Had to have the price stamped on it by hand. Cash register had paper rolls and metal keys that struck the prices, that's all, no description other than dairy, can goods , produce.etc. This was 1956. Sometime in late 60's had computer cards to fill out with lead pencil and manager would phone into a computer. I do remember getting 6 snow shovels on 4th of July Weekend.
Now not only are products scanned for price, ink sprayed thru magnetic field for receipt ( PFM ) , but in some cases cash register info used to re-order inventory. When I first saw self checkout registers, I asked a girl working there, on which day was I to come in to fill the shelf s.

What has this to do with AI. Well, I am amazed at driverless cars. But heard something on radio today that amazed me. People in silicon valley wondering if anyone will have to work in the future. They gave this example of AI versus programming :

You are in a room in the future with a Robot with AI. You tell it to go down the hallway and set up a conference room and make sure it is ready. Robot goes there, table and chairs are all set up, all that is needed is to turn on the lights. Robot hits switch, but no light. Robot see that the bulb is burned out. Robot scans the room and finds a spare bulb. Robot gets same, but sees he can not reach the bulb. Robot gets a table and a chair. Stands on chair to get up on table. Reaches and replaces bulb. Puts table and chair back in original positions, deposits burned out bulb in proper trash receptacle, then Robot goes into sleep mode. Awaiting future commands from Conference room attendees. Supposedly all those actions were not programmed, but the result of AI.

The accepted distinction between AI and programming is that AI can learn. If the robot was programmed extensively enough so that it was able to handle all contingencies in making sure the conference room was set up properly, that's programming. If it did not know how but was able to figure it out, that's AI.

Extensive enough programming can be made to mimic AI, like those "conversational" systems that can mimic therapists and apparently pass the Turing test for quite a while, at least. But only a true artificial intelligence can create something.

One of the two Publix grocery stores I go to is putting in self-checkout finally. It's a chain that has been highly rated for many of its years. But I believe competition is forcing them to automate more and reduce employees.

COMPETITION WILL FORCE IT for all the naysayers.

It's a not a matter of IF, but WHEN.

And the more complex AI will reduce more highly skilled jobs, unlike the industrial revolution.

Hear about the fully automated grocery store in New Zealand? Lights came on, doors unlocked, self-checkout lines were activated but there were no employees in the store since it was a national holiday that the computer company had never been told about. Shoppers were driving truckloads of groceries out the door as the word spread.

Quote: Fleastiff

Hear about the fully automated grocery store in New Zealand? Lights came on, doors unlocked, self-checkout lines were activated but there were no employees in the store since it was a national holiday that the computer company had never been told about. Shoppers were driving truckloads of groceries out the door as the word spread.

Unintended consequences of newer technology. Better to correct in small chain than find out in a Walmart size chain.

Quote:

Nobody was around when Bob Burdett fell from his bike while mountain biking at the Riverside State Park in Spokane, Washington. He hit his head on the ground so hard that he was knocked unconscious. Nobody saw him fall, but minutes later, an ambulance came and took him to the Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Who saved Burdett’s life? The answer was wrapped around his wrist: an Apple Watch that activated an emergency feature that launches if its user is detected as immobile for more than 60 seconds after a ‘hard fall.’

Two other similar stories about Apple watches. One guy was notified of a heart condition he didn't know he had.

Another guy's watch activated when falling down a cliff. He didn't even know his watch called 911.

Amazon is demoing stores where you don't have to check out.
It watches you, and knows what you have when you leave.