Future through whizz-kid’s eyes
A 13-year-old who is helping a disabled woman communicate through artificial intelligence (AI) is optimistic that technology will benefit humanity and not be used for ‘‘evil’’.
Tanmay Bakshi created his first timetable-learning app for Apple at the age of nine.
Since then, he has used IBM’s AI software Watson to develop a cyber security app and a scam detection software for websites.
Technology company IBM took note of Bakshi two years ago when he explained Watson in an episode on his YouTube channel, Tanmay Teaches.
He is now an IBM honorary cloud adviser – the youngest in a global team of technology advisers.
His latest project, called The Cognitive Story, is helping a disabled and housebound Canadian woman communicate via neural network technology that models her brain and nervous system.
Bakshi said it would give the woman the opportunity to no longer be locked inside her own body.
It was one example of how AI could change people’s lives for the better.
The project involves open-source AI, meaning the software Bakshi will help develop is available for anyone to use and provide feedback online.
He applauded Elon Musk for forming the OpenAI company, which promotes safe and beneficial use of the technology. He said he hoped to talk to Musk about it if he met him.
He said AI will only augment a human’s ability and knowledge, not overtake it. ‘‘I definitely believe that artificial intelligence itself is something that we should not be scared of.’’
Bakshi said AI machines are in a primitive stage and could easily be fooled. If a machine malfunctioned, it was the machine’s fault, he said.
‘‘There are going to be some cases where some mishaps happen.
‘‘However, it is not the trainer’s fault or the person who created the neural network; it is the neural network algorithm itself and how it works.’’
‘‘Evil’’ uses of AI could include programming biases into a machine’s code, creating lethal autonomous weapons systems, or using an algorithm to find bad outliers.
Bakshi said AI could solve problems in almost every industry, from healthcare to agriculture. But he was most excited about its prospects to help the disabled.
He said he could not predict what the future of AI would look like, although he was surethat the ‘‘good guys’’ would stop the ‘‘bad guys’’ from getting their hands on it.