Man has come to a steady conclusion: we are all only as great as the sum of our parts. We understand the importance of developing ourselves and being self-sufficient, but we also aren’t too proud to lean on a friend, a partner or a piece of software. Man continues to push his or her calendar of ideas, but specifically in pairs rather than individuals; however, our dependency has transitioned to favoring artificial intelligence. In a world consumed with smart phones and complex software, the onus towards our own development seems stagnant while for technology it appears to be more dynamic than ever. With our thesis of progression dependent on technology we can only ponder the limitations of our intelligence and the limitless opportunities for artificial partners.
Recently, Ray Kurzweli–computer scientist and member of Google’s staff–sought out to synthesize language with artificial intelligence as an application to our everyday life. Within the past few months, those who use Gmail (which are many) should have already encountered Kurzweli’s brain child of “smart replies,” where human language and artificial diction meet a medium. While engaging in a chain of email replies between yourself and a companion, at the end of the email you should be met with very adequate responses. Though a simple application in our everyday life, Kuezweli succeeds in blurring the lines of language as a human concept where software can simply replicate our diction and syntax with its smart replies.
We still only seem to be tapping the surface of the software we meddle in, and with such a great focus on artificial intelligence it makes you wonder if we have come to a standstill on our own intelligence. An interdependent relationship is ideal for growth and we have affirmed our relationship with technology as the current and ultimate bond of that paradigm; however, there is a fine line between interdependency and dependency. We’ll always be smart but will technology appear to be so smart that we seem “dumb” by comparison?
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