[TwoOfDiamonds]

Hello DICs

Recently I decided to pick up on AI and I have a few questions that I'd like to ask each one of you.
Are AI experts needed in any domain and if so, in which domains ?
Also, as a future programmer ( maybe AI specialist someday ) what should I focus on ? Learning more programming languages or learning as many algorithms as better as I can ?

PS: I'm 12th grade , going to university next year

[Atli]

TwoOfDiamonds, on 11 December 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

Are AI experts needed in any domain and if so, in which domains ?

Game development would be a good bet. There is plenty of AI going on in that area.

[TwoOfDiamonds]

Is that the only one?

[Atli]

It's the only obvious area I can think of, but it is no doubt useful in other areas as well. Just consider things like search engines, which are programmed to provide intelligent answers to user input, based on a huge number of criteria. That surely qualifies as AI.

[Mike+9]

Here are some I found:

Quote

Autonomous vehicles (Robotics)
Industrial quality inspection (Computer vision)
Face recognition (Computer vision)
Medical computer vision
Search engines (Natural language processing, computer vision)
Computer games (Planning, Path searching etc.)
Computer algebra systems (Symbolic computation)
Algorithmic trading
"Smart" weapons
Customer service chatterbots

So, I would bet finding a job in this domain will not be that difficult.

[TwoOfDiamonds]

That would be awesome , thank you .
And I have one more question , is anyone learning algorithms the old way anymore ? or are you using what you get from libraries, etc ?

[jon.kiparsky]

Bear in mind that what's being called "AI" now is quite a broad area. A lot of problems that used to seem to obviously require intelligence are being shown to be solvable with quite "stupid" methods. "Stupid" meaning that the intelligence resides in the programmer, not in the system. Take translation, for example. When this was an AI problem, the presumption was that you'd have to parse a natural language, solve a lot of context puzzles, and encode the resulting "message" in some other representation, solving a lot of similar puzzles in reverse.
Now, it's all done by clever application of statistics by machines that know nothing of the semantics and pretty much nothing of the syntax of what they're "reading" and don't even pretend to try to understand any of it: no AI involved, although the problems are still plenty hard ones.

Quote

And I have one more question , is anyone learning algorithms the old way anymore ? or are you using what you get from libraries, etc ?

Of course you use library code wherever possible - nobody will ever write a quicksort in production code when it's already implemented correctly in their language of choice. On the other hand, I'd not give a lot for the chances of someone who skipped learning about algorithms if they told me they wanted to go into AI - or anything interesting in computers, for that matter.

[TwoOfDiamonds]

Ok Thanks jon . I will start to study algorithms as much as I can and after I have a strong base on it I will look into AI , after all, I got plenty of years ahead of me

[jon.kiparsky]

If there's any way you can take Data Structures and Algorithms in real time with a real instructor, I suggest you do it. This is an area where you'd really like to work on this in real time with real people and a real instructor. A distant second best would be to sign up for Sedgewick's next round of his Coursera course, but if there's any way to do it for real, do that instead. (or in addition - it can't hurt to hear Sedgewick talk about algorithms, but it's not nearly a substitute for talking about these things in real time.

[TwoOfDiamonds]

I don't have the possibility at the moment for 2 reasons:
1. it might be too expensive at the moment to get tutoring
2. it's my final highschool year and need to get ready for my exams and the schedule is pretty busy .

But couldn't I learn it from "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen ?
I heard it's a pretty good book and I've been self-taught in programming from the start and I can't say I've been doing it bad
Of course, I might have learnt it faster with a teacher but in my city at least they know C++ and Pascal mostly and usually they are not fans of OOP, maps, etc . So it was the only way Also, I don't think there are any special courses I could take.

[depricated]

Just don't name your side project "Skynet"

[Mike+9]

TwoOfDiamonds, on 12 December 2012 - 09:57 PM, said:

I don't have the possibility at the moment for 2 reasons:
1. it might be too expensive at the moment to get tutoring
2. it's my final highschool year and need to get ready for my exams and the schedule is pretty busy .

But couldn't I learn it from "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen ?
I heard it's a pretty good book and I've been self-taught in programming from the start and I can't say I've been doing it bad />
Of course, I might have learnt it faster with a teacher but in my city at least they know C++ and Pascal mostly and usually they are not fans of OOP, maps, etc . So it was the only way /> Also, I don't think there are any special courses I could take.

I'm pretty sure you can manage learning most of the stuff you need on your own. Maybe after going to college you can join a class there or maybe even join an intership. For now I suggest you program on your free time and try to get good grades on your exam, considering the statistics in the last 2 years...

[modi123_1]

FYI - this is a good book to get a pretty comprehensive look on AI. I still have my first edition from my AI 101 class.

This post has been edited by modi123_1: 13 December 2012 - 09:14 AM

[jon.kiparsky]

TwoOfDiamonds, on 12 December 2012 - 11:57 PM, said:

I don't have the possibility at the moment for 2 reasons:
1. it might be too expensive at the moment to get tutoring
2. it's my final highschool year and need to get ready for my exams and the schedule is pretty busy .

But couldn't I learn it from "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen ?
I heard it's a pretty good book and I've been self-taught in programming from the start and I can't say I've been doing it bad />
Of course, I might have learnt it faster with a teacher but in my city at least they know C++ and Pascal mostly and usually they are not fans of OOP, maps, etc . So it was the only way /> Also, I don't think there are any special courses I could take.

Yes, you can learn this stuff on your own. The best thing, though, for this particular topic, is to get in a room with someone who understands it well and several other people who don't, and hash it out.
The reason for this is that understanding algorithms is not just programming, it's also a lot of math and a lot of logic, and there are leaps that you have to make which, while perfectly justified, are not obvious. A good teacher can help you make those leaps and understand the nuances, and some good learners can ask the questions that you haven't thought of and talk out the questions you have thought of.
To get a little high-minded about it, there are discursive disciplines and meditative ones. Recursion as flow control would be a meditative discipline: you learn it by contemplating good examples until a realization flowers in your brain. Once that happens, it quickly become obvious how it works. Algorithms is a discursive discipline: there are so many threads crossing that it takes several minds to bring them together. Unless you have several minds, you should try to make use of others for this.

[TwoOfDiamonds]

That's a brilliant suggeestion , only I am the only programmer that I know to be interested in this . I have class mates but they don't like CS and there are 1 or 2 people I know in my city but I'm not that close to them :-? so Forever Alone strikes again