Last Thursday and Friday, I had the opportunity to attend Google I/O, which is Google's annual conference for developers and designers. As part of the conference, I saw several new products and launches, learn more about new tools that I can use as a software engineer, and attend workshops on design for tech. There was one product discussed in the keynote that I thought was particularly relevant to the course: Google Now on Tap.
Now on Tap is a more advanced version of Google Now, which is an automated mobile assistant brings users relevant information like appointment reminders, traffic information and navigation to frequently visited locations, sports scores from favorite teams, and more. Now on Tap will extend this functionality, with the goal of surfacing the exact information a user is searching for without the user having to actually type in a search query. To accomplish this, Google utilizes artificial neural networks that are several layers deep. Like biological neural networks, these networks can take in several different inputs to reach a single output. The deeper the networks, the more powerful they are, which is why Google Now is so useful.
Listening to the speakers talk about these neural networks reminded me of our Neuroscience + Art unit. Computer scientists are able to use the research of neuroscientists to create these machines that behave very much as if they had human brains. I can press a button on my phone, ask it a question, and receive an answer, as if we were having a conversation. As Google's neural networks get deeper, and its knowledge graph gets larger, these machines will become smarter and more human-like. At some point, we'll have to really re-evaluate what it means to be alive and cognisant. Perhaps this will be a future paradigm shift!
The following video contains the entire keynote speech. To watch from when Google Now on Tap was announced, start at 48:26!
The following are some pictures I took at I/O!
They served us carbonated strawberries at the after party!
Every so often, they make different themed Android figurines.
This mini exhibit was really cool! They set up a bunch of phones/tablets of different sizes and put an Android character on each one. Each character played an instrument, so it was like an orchestra/choir of Androids.
No comments:
Post a Comment