Until recently, AI has been a neglected subject in the curriculum of most Indian Universities. As times are changing, thanks to the frenzy of Machine Learning applications popping up everywhere, the interest in AI is gaining momentum.
My work on AI started, way back in 2001, but had to drop them, as there was lack of interest, applications, takers, market, and all... So, whenever I get an opportunity for an invited talk (the topic would generally be of some jargon prevailing at that point of time - like Mobile Computing, Cloud Computing, Big Data, IoT etc..), I used to add a couple of slides on AI and will play to the gallery (as they say in Cricket Commentary). My objective was to spur interest on the subject.
I pepper the presentation with examples that the students can connect with. I therefore focus on applications of AI, and tell about how Facebook (as every student invariably has an account) uses algorithms such as DeepFace, IBM used Deep Blue, and now Watson - for creating a movie trailer (Morgan) etc...
I also give a brief history of AI, tell them the craze over today's programming languages such as Java - being an OOP language - were derived from Frames and Concepts (Ontologies) in AI.
Then coming back to AI, I also tell about the pinnacle of intellectual ability expected from AI systems, as we keep raising the bar of the required intelligence continuously. I introduce them to Alan Turing's test, (wherein a human tries to distinguish between a human and a machine through conversation) and then go on about the need for "contextual intelligence" that has been missing now, and go on and on and conclude with a still from the popular Tamil movie Enthiran, wherein a Robot tries to distinguish between a man and machine, which is probably the pinnacle of AI.
My work on AI started, way back in 2001, but had to drop them, as there was lack of interest, applications, takers, market, and all... So, whenever I get an opportunity for an invited talk (the topic would generally be of some jargon prevailing at that point of time - like Mobile Computing, Cloud Computing, Big Data, IoT etc..), I used to add a couple of slides on AI and will play to the gallery (as they say in Cricket Commentary). My objective was to spur interest on the subject.
I pepper the presentation with examples that the students can connect with. I therefore focus on applications of AI, and tell about how Facebook (as every student invariably has an account) uses algorithms such as DeepFace, IBM used Deep Blue, and now Watson - for creating a movie trailer (Morgan) etc...
I also give a brief history of AI, tell them the craze over today's programming languages such as Java - being an OOP language - were derived from Frames and Concepts (Ontologies) in AI.
Then coming back to AI, I also tell about the pinnacle of intellectual ability expected from AI systems, as we keep raising the bar of the required intelligence continuously. I introduce them to Alan Turing's test, (wherein a human tries to distinguish between a human and a machine through conversation) and then go on about the need for "contextual intelligence" that has been missing now, and go on and on and conclude with a still from the popular Tamil movie Enthiran, wherein a Robot tries to distinguish between a man and machine, which is probably the pinnacle of AI.
P.S: I used to wonder whether the story writer (and director) of the movie did this in full realization.
