A.I. - by - proxy

[malcolm]

It sounds like it's A.I.

It's certainly marketed like it's the next big thing in A.I. (look ma, no hands)

But in fact it's just A.I.-by-proxy.

This is a system which relies on the Real Intelligence of the drivers in the surrounding vehicles. The system simply locks onto them, remaining equidistant from them and voila - it seems intelligent. You can take your hands off the wheel, now Michael.

However, the hardware in the car is simply following and adjusting for the behaviour of nearby drivers. The A.I. piggybacks on the R.I. of fellow commuters. It's just another form of crowd-sourcing.

It has obvious applications in heavy traffic or cruise scenarios. These areas are low-hanging fruit.

Here's the one from Audi:

Audi introduces its level 3 semi-autonomous A8

Which is certainly stress-reducing for you/your chauffeur.

Please add further examples as you find them.

 

[EchoDelta]

Not to be pedantic but...
That's AI, even if still a very limited form of "intelligence" that only works in the very narrow operational envelope of having your car surrounded by others.

I think you are using the "AI" label to imply much more than it actually does about the strategies and approaches and limits of the intelligent behavior.

 

[malcolm]

Well driving by identifying road markings rather than simply following other cars - but, yes - I guess I'm expecting AI to be capable of a greater level of autonomy, although I accept that copycat driving is a "smart" choice in some situations.

It is certainly the only option available for any of us in traffic jams. Apart from the minority of crazy creatives who always try to create an extra lane

 

[ecarfan]

Every time we build a machine that is capable of doing something that previously only humans could do, we decide "that's not really AI" but in fact it is a form of "narrow AI" and our modern world is chock full of such machines. But we very quickly get used to them and forget about them.

When discussing AI it is important to distinguish between "narrow AI" and "general AI". And now that machines can beat the very best humans at Go, chess, and Jeopardy, we are probably a lot closer to general AI than most people realize. We keep moving the goalpost as to what AI is and many people stop paying attention to the incredible advances in neural networks and deep machine learning.

 

[sandpiper]

we are probably a lot closer to general AI than most people realize.

Not to belittle the recent accomplishments (it's truly been impressive) but I think we're still a long way from an AGI. The signs are there that we're finally on the right road, but we're going to need major increases in processing capability.