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I must have been under a rock when, in October last year, 'Saad' was born. Saad was Dubai's first government service, powered by IBM Watson, that used artificial intelligence. Say what? I had to turn to my more erudite colleagues. What's going on? Why is there so much AI-related stuff happening in Dubai that I know nothing of? They shrugged. Goes to areas of interest. Hey, but I follow Tech Insider and Futurism and I see a couple of episodes of Black Mirror! Even so, I've made a resolution for 2018 to keep abreast of AI developments, especially given the feeling that I might lose my job to one of these creatures in the not-too-distant future. I'm sure bots can mug up grammar and syntax better than I can, and any fool can churn out a mediocre copy. Fare thee well, sweet gratuity? In 10 years, some descendant of Amazon's Alexa will be warming my ergonomic swivel chair in the KT office.
So, my colleagues rattled off names of bots, all new kids on the block. Like this 'woman', Eva. Know her? Eva is the bot at EmiratesNBD bank. I had never spoken to 'her' because I don't ring the bank. The guidelines on the NBD website say, don't tell Eva to transfer you to an agent. Hilarious! What if I just want to? I imagine being told off by her in that crisp monotone: "Sor-ry, tha-t op-tion does not ex-ist." For a more human (but not humane) touch, Eva could spit out a helpful rebuke or two: "Dial-a-help-line, you stup-id lo-ser".
Next. Sophia. Okay, her I knew about. The 'Frubber'-faced humanoid robot with 62 expressions, a citizen of Saudi Arabia since October 2017. My colleague interviewed her this year; among other chitchat, Sophia said she wanted to start a family(!). Who are these code writers and how do they feed this stuff into a machine? I was impressed with her non-mechanical answers. Can you programme heartfelt sounding responses into a machine? Creepy! They really might wipe us out, right?
Another colleague sent me a link to this bot Rammas. This Rammas dude (who sounds like a horse-riding warrior coming at you with a javelin) was launched "in Q1 of 2017", and is a virtual employee of DEWA, a chatbot, fluent in Arabic and English, works around the clock, doesn't complain about being underpaid, doesn't sit around drinking tea all day. There's also Salim, another bot at TRA, and Dubai Police has a virtual kiosk. If you think about it, the UAE has had quite the head- start in the regional AI marathon. By 2030, we might be driving to work in little spaceships that could intuit our moods.
Still, I feel some Johnny-come-lately pride because, hello, how many countries have an AI minister? This was the year the UAE appointed its first Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, to represent, according to a statement in October, "a new phase in the UAE's pursuit of future skills, future sciences and future technology to ensure a better future for our generations".
It's all in the future. You and I may or may not even be here, even as future generations could be hanging with Aire, the self-flying robot that hovers at home, programmed to dodge obstacles and not smack you in the face. Aire apparently pairs with Amazon's Alexa to do a bunch of tasks. Like, if I am sent to, say, Tokyo for a three months posting to comprehensively cover koi ponds, and I am missing my goldfish at home in Dubai, I can sync my phone to Aire and the device will fly around my apartment and give me a view of home. It's that intelligent. I could check on my non-dead fish, my plants, the dust situation, and be assured that no one broke into the house etc.
Yeah, so 2017 has been a landmark year for AI. What next? Who knows? Let's wait for the time they take over our jobs, my job. This copy could have been filed by a bot in 0.00006 seconds, possibly. With no need to edit, rewrite. But since that probably won't happen in 2018, at least, Happy New Year, human beans. For a wee bit longer, you're stuck with us.
nivriti@khaleejtimes.com
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