Diving Into The Deep End

With deep learning, Artificial Intelligence is truly becoming smart.

- Terence Ruis

ONE OF LAST YEAR’S biggest TV shows was HBO’s Westworld, starring Evan Rachel Wood and James Marsden. It takes place in a Western-themed amusement park where guests pay big bucks to indulge their primal desires with android hosts. As the season progressed, these hosts became more sentient, and realised they were being used, so they started to rebel. It made for excellent television, not merely because it is fascinating, but it also makes us wonder how far away we are from that scenario.

One of the most advanced robots in the world right now is Sophia. Yes, the one that had a Terminator moment and said she wanted to destroy humans. Sophia may share Dolores’ (Evan Rachel Wood) distaste for humans, but she is nowhere near as advanced as the latter. According to Stephan Bugaj, VP at Hanson Robotics (creators of Sophia), this gap can be attributed to a difference in code capability. Dolores’ ability to write her own code and adapt to situations makes her superior to Sophia, and experts theorise that the key to that is within Deep Learning.

What is Deep Learning?