When I was young, I was very interested in machines and robots in particular. I always wanted to know how they worked. My high school education never got me anywhere close to that knowledge, and I just couldn't even scrape the surface on how automatons let alone a computer even worked until my sophomore year of college. While I did finally figure out how computers could store memory, I also realized how much of a learning curve there was in building a robot. Building a robot requires a multi-discipline approach. You need to know mechanical engineering and virtually every subsection of electrical engineering. While I certainly attempted this, I eventually focused on artificial intelligence. My logic at the time was that I was seeing advancements in the body of a robot, but not so much in the mind. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to study artificial intelligence as an undergrad with one of my programming professors.
With all of the ambition in the world, I foresaw that with a little more knowledge, I could be the one to crack the code of artificial intelligence. I was frustrated that my Tetris AI was basically a somewhat sophisticated math equation, but my theory was that if a computer could be taught how to learn a language, then maybe it could develop artificial intelligence. A daunting challenge, but I was eager to try. Unfortunately, I began to realize how futile this was. Not only that, but I also began to realize that artificial intelligence was impossible. Not because it was hard, but because I thought it to be philosophically impossible - a topic I might blog about later.
One of my biggest pet peeves is how loose the term "AI" is thrown around nowadays. Things like Siri (the iPhone digital assistant) are not an AI. They are better described as an API - application programming interface. While it's cool that Siri can respond to a voice command, all of Siri's responses are preprogrammed. Basically, Siri is just an interface that converts voice into an action. Siri does not understand your words, nor does it have any means to try and understand your words. To me, it's no different than a toaster (just a bit more sophisticated).
I may have alluded to my frustrations with college in previous posts, but I really can't overstate how hard college was for me and to see all of my hard work in vain was very depressing for me. I didn't want to have anything to do with engineering at all after this. I went to a job fair near the end of my senior year and ran into an Army recruiter. Fortunately, I did get a minor in Political Science, and the Army seemed like a descent enough fit. While I didn't care for engineering anymore, I still felt that doing something with technology would at least not be a total waste of my time.
When I finally told my family about my choice, my father was quick to have me become an officer. I talked to the recruiters, and they thought it would be better for me to be enlisted and then become an officer. Ultimately, the reason why I sided with the recruiters wasn't because of their logic, but because I wasn't even sure if I really wanted to make the Army a career, so I thought not becoming an officer would be less impactful if I decided to make my time in the Army short. I had zero experience with the military, so I had no idea what to inspect. In hindsight, I might have sided with my father, but I do plan on going into the Green to Gold program in the future.
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