Artificial Intelligence

This week's read is from the NY Times, and is an article called, Scientists See Promise in Deep-Learning Programs. It was an interesting article about the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and that they were getting so advanced to the point where software is surpassing the human brain in recognizing patterns and the process of learning. The article is written by John Markoff, a writer for the NY Times. He is best known for his book and articles that captured the life of famous computer hacker Kevin Mitnick. The author is well involved with the software development industry and is well qualified to write about the concept of artificial intelligence, a big field in software engineering and computer science. He writes for a moderately informed audience, an audience that appreciates the feats of technology accomplished by man, but also does not use much jargon or scientific terms. The article is an easy first approach to computer science. The purpose of the article is to suggest that artificial intelligence has an undeniable place in the economy and the future, that artificial intelligence is rapidly increasing and taking its place in an incredibly advanced and efficient society. One effective strategy that the author likes to implement is personification. The software can't actually learn, but it can store information and recall it, but the author uses verbs to describe the actions of the software, like learning, being trained; the software seems to be like a Frankenstein of sorts. It works well because it enhances the idea of artificial intelligence and also emphasizes the significance of such advancements, to show how human-like computers and software has become.