Cautioning Against Technological Pitfalls – Part 13
Cautioning Against the Illusion of Certain Artificial Intelligence Products
A great deal of media clamor has contributed to inflating the artificial intelligence bubble, causing every product to claim a connection to it when they are innocent of any such thing! Most products perhaps possess a small measure of machine learning capabilities, or visual or audio recognition for systems, or the most widespread, text recognition in the form of chatbots, and then it is proclaimed everywhere that the product possesses artificial intelligence in this and that, merely for marketing and selling to non-specialists. Some may say that these tasks are classified to some extent within the capabilities of artificial intelligence, and yes, that is true, but they are mostly not intelligent. What is expected of systems endowed with artificial intelligence, which is a very large term, is that they bring something new and understand what is happening around them. As for merely noticing variables, or even answering inquiries, which are often inaccurate or even incorrect answers at times, in these illusory products this is not considered artificial intelligence by any expression whatsoever, so much as it is artificial training, so we can call them "artificially trained machines or systems," then we would request a disclosure of the nature of the tasks the machine or system was trained on. The truth about most of these products is that they do not go beyond being conditional statements (if, then, and else) with the label of artificial intelligence! Let us look at an example of fully-fledged artificial intelligence, such as Google Assistant, which knows which room you are in and so controls the devices of that room when you give it commands, such as turning on the television, switching off the lights, and changing the temperature, and continuing the conversation, and understanding two unrelated commands at once, such as telling it to turn off the lights and lower the temperature in a single context. The most remarkable thing of all is that the assistant understands several phrasings and human-like dialogue, to the point that it even understands the speech of children.
Encouraging Podcasts and Videocasts
It has begun to spread slowly in the Arab world with modest statistics, but entering this field is an important and beneficial matter. In brief, podcasts and videocasts are specialized, organized programs that individuals record and present within YouTube videos or SoundCloud audio recordings, the latter of which can be made available by adding the audio channel to podcast apps from Apple, Google, and others, so that new episodes become available automatically as soon as they are uploaded to SoundCloud or any audio site, which could be your own website as well. The episodes are usually of medium or long duration, from 15 minutes up to two hours or more, and it is preferable to listen to them in cars, while exercising, or while sitting in a café, for example. The specializations are limitless, so the videocast or podcast may be technological, such as the videocast "S J Technology" on YouTube or "The Technical Council Podcast," or in other specializations such as sports, agriculture, health, economics, science, education, and others, and episodes are added at different intervals, some weekly and others monthly. Entering this field is important and beneficial, for it consolidates knowledge, increases learning, benefits people, and you may obtain commercial sponsorship.
Encouraging Remote and On-Site Work!
The principle of the micro and the macro, the comprehensive view from afar and the deep view up close, these managerial principles are best achieved when remote and on-site work are blended and enabled in a routine manner each week, which makes work teams view both the details and the totality of tasks more comprehensively. This is very noticeable after the great experiment carried out at the global level. It would be wonderful if it were applied within institutions, such that it grants stronger dynamism and flexibility, which makes the overall output of employees multiply.
Encouraging the Use of Connected Surveillance Cameras
The prices of connected cameras have now become affordable and they enjoy many features such as recording only upon motion, or upon the presence of noise, with the ability to send notifications and connect to the home wireless network, along with the ability for night recording, indeed in some categories color night recording with the least possible lighting has been achieved, as well as the two-way talk feature, so you can speak with anyone in front of the camera and hear them of course, and some versions also support charging via solar power (very rare) and connection via a data SIM, and the features are many. Among the most important things that distinguish companies is the storage location: is it cloud storage, or on a memory card, or through a local video server, as well as the mechanism of use through the apps, the strength and performance of the apps, the integration with smart assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon, and others, and the feature of recognizing people, cars, and their plate numbers, and other modern technical specifications. Among the best companies are "Ezviz," Arlo, Nest, and Ring.
Cautioning Against Using Wi-Fi Devices Without the "Mesh" Feature
People have become entangled and many have been struck by frustration from the many successive attempts to solve the dilemma of covering their entire home with the wireless network, to the point that some of them have bought new devices every 3 months! Without any notable benefit. The only practical solution for coverage is by using interconnection technology (mesh network). In this way you can use several small pieces of devices, often sold three in a single box, which you distribute throughout the home and control through an app on your phone, while ensuring that the distances between them are close, in a sequence, if the connection between them is wireless. But if the connection between them is through network cables, then you can place the additional devices wherever you wish. The beautiful thing about this matter is that your movement around the home afterward is completely seamless, and your transition between the devices is without any difficulty, because the name is one, the network is one, and the coverage is complete, God willing. You can install up to a maximum of 12 pieces in a single network in general, which may increase or decrease in some versions, and among the best products in this field is Deco.
Cautioning Against Booby-Trapped News Apps
The majority of news apps do not care about quality, so they present news from various sources, the worthless and the worthy, darkness and light, even from some who claim neutrality while concealing messages within their content. Therefore, attention and caution against these apps is warranted, and among the safe apps are the apps of official local newspapers, the Rabt news app, and others.
Encouraging the Use of Drones in Beneficial Matters
The uses of drones, or unmanned aircraft, are in steady growth and great, beneficial diversity, and this is a wonderful thing, for we can apply them in monitoring borders, tracking livestock, inspecting agricultural areas, traffic and fire accidents, as well as maintenance and development operations, monitoring reserves and parks, filming stadiums, events, and occasions, and delivering and receiving goods.
Drones are in need of legislation, regulations, and cooperation between producers and legislators in imposing software rules of no-fly zones upon accredited drone producers, and permitting the sale only of these models equipped with these maps and no others, and criminalizing the sale and purchase of any unmanned aircraft that does not contain these rules in its data, to preserve security and safety. Everyone must be aware that the misuse of these aircraft is an extremely dangerous matter, especially in vital places.
Eng. Ahmed Al Zarouni, Al Roeya Newspaper
