Week 1 - Automation and AI

    In the past decade or so, artificial intelligence has risen to prominence and it's not going away. In fact, it's becoming increasingly prevalent
with every passing day. When it comes to artificial intelligence, people think of news articles predicting futures with self driving cars and robots that are identical to humans.

    That future is closer than we expect. Current day robots in manufacturing are mainly big machines stuck in one spot that perform a specific task. For instance, a machine will install an engine to a car then pass the car along a track to the next machine to install the battery. Artificial intelligence is building the next generation of manufacturing to create autonomous robots that can freely move around the warehouse. Boston Dynamics has creating robots that can pick up boxes and walk around. Pair those robots with a software that can map out the most efficient routes over time, and you now have a group of robots that can quickly stock expansive warehouses incredibly quickly.

    Physical robots are not the only thing that benefits from artificial intelligence. Software like Excel has been used to automate routine, labor-intensive work. Now, software can use AI to complete more sophisticated tasks life data analytics. After all, artificial intelligence and machine learning is all about analyzing data. The data analysis has become so complex the software can almost analyze the data like a human. We may still be far from software thinking like a human, but artificial intelligence is here to stay and is improving every day.