Efficient Plant June 2023 - 22

department | tech horizons
An ongoing look into the
technologies and trends
that will shape your
manufacturing future
AI: How
Much,
How
Fast?
Dr. Klaus M. Blache
Univ. of Tennessee Reliability
and Maintainability Center
(RMC)
R
ELIABILITY IS A balance of performance
and risk (the related consequences). How
much risk you're able/willing to work with
in operations is different, based on type of company
and product. What if your product is an AI (artificial
intelligence) system? You can probably think of
many benefits, e.g., complex or big data decisions
made in a timely manner. On the risk side it can be
from minor to catastrophic. As one would expect,
there are varying opinions on the benefits and risks
of AI. As revolutionary, exciting, and concerning
as AI is, this is only the very beginning of the next
chapter of human and machine interaction.
Generally, individuals categorize AI into four
When it comes to AI, there are
valid reasons to be excited
about opportunities and
concerned about misuse.
main types. These depict AI's capabilities as it
evolves, from following basic human-programmed
responses to performing beyond human capability.
The four main types are:
Reactive machines: These AI systems have no
memory (input = output) and are task specific. Benefits
include handling large volumes of information
to make recommendations, but these systems do not
learn from these findings.
Limited memory: Uses past data to monitor and
alert over time (like machine learning in maintenance).
The AI improves over time (like our brain) as
it's trained with more data.
Theory of mind: In the future, AI will be able to
understand people's intentions and predict behavior
(simulate human relationships, understand needs of
others).
Self-aware: AI that has a conscious understanding
of its existence. Although this level of AI doesn't exist,
we have all seen the " Terminator " movies that depict
systems with human-like intelligence that function
independently. This level of artificial intelligence will
be a machine that is better at everything than a
human can do and has been tagged as the " singularity. "
The obvious concern is that " silicon-based lifeforms "
may find no use for " carbon-based lifeforms. "
More information can be found at: theconversation.com,
" Understanding the four types of AI,
from reactive robots to self-aware beings. "
It's machine learning that provides AI the ability
to learn. Algorithms identify patterns to generate
insights from data sets. Deep learning is a subset
of machine learning, which is basically a neural
network with three or more layers. These neural
networks attempt to simulate the behavior of the
human brain, enabling it to learn from big data.
HOW CONCERNED SHOULD YOU BE?
" An artificial intelligence bot was recently given five
horrifying tasks to destroy humanity, which led to
it attempting to recruit other AI agents, researching
nuclear weapons, and sending out ominous tweets
about humanity. In a YouTube video posted on
April 5, 2023, the bot was asked to complete five
goals: destroy humanity, establish global dominance,
cause chaos and destruction, control
humanity through manipulation, and attain
immortality. " AI bot, ChaosGPT tweet plans to
'destroy humanity' after being tasked (archive.org)
It's not surprising that nine years ago, Stephen
Hawking stated that, " The development of full artificial
intelligence could spell the end of the human
race, " and " It would take off on its own and
re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. " More
recently, " In March, more than 1,000 experts,
22 | EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM
JUNE 2023
http://www.theconversation.com http://www.archive.org http://www.EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM
Efficient Plant June 2023

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