JUST LIKE HAGGIS
People are using AI everyday whether they realise it or not. Every time you shop online you are using AI
ARTIFICIAL intelligence is a bit like haggis, a technology expert for the United States Government told a conference in Dunedin yesterday.
Justin Herman told the 200 strong crowd both things seemed ‘‘terrifying’’ before you tried them but were ‘‘pretty good’’ when you gave them a go.
The Algim (Association of Local Government Information Management) web and digital and customer experience conference keynote speaker spoke about the need to demystify artificial intelligence and virtual reality technologies so they could be used to help people in everyday life.
Notions of artificial intelligence portrayed in science fiction texts and films such as The
Terminator were a long way away from the democratisation of such technologies today, Mr Herman said.
‘‘People are using AI every day whether they realise it or not.
‘‘Every time you shop online you are using AI.’’
He worked with 1500 Federal technologists to ensure technologies were successfully used to educate and train people working for the government.
Examples included using virtual reality goggles to train medical practitioners and to give people making important decisions about remote places an experience of what the remote location was like.
Virtual reality goggles were also being used in a therapeutic way to treat soldiers with post traumatic stress disorder and people with phobias, by exposing them to a virtual representation of their fear, Mr Herman said.
Despite their benefits, it was important such technologies were standardised.
‘‘People don’t like standardisation. For some it is as much of a bad word as Washington, but it’s important.’’
A United States Central Command twitter account was hacked by Islamic State because of a past lack of standardisation in the security of federal government social media pages, Mr Herman said.
During the hack the contact details of soldiers and their families were made public.
Such incidents meant cooperation between countries to help and educate one another about best practice when using new technologies was ‘‘critical’’.
Issues based around knowledge of how best to use technology to benefit organisations and the public were the same in New Zealand as in America, he said.
It was important local governments led the way because while artificial intelligence and virtual reality were not to be feared, the increase in prevalence of their use could not be avoided.
‘‘What we should fear is people not getting help so they can use these technologies to improve their lives.’’
The conference will continue today.