Advances in Artificial Intelligence

The interaction between humans and machines has a history of evolution that is as interesting as the evolution of man itself. We have come a long way from the days of the hunter-gatherer tools through the Stone Age, the Iron Age and the different phases of human advancement. We learned to use the things around us to get results. Horses for transportation, fire for heat and so on. And we also learned to even build systems of our own- Furnaces, cars, and aeroplanes.

Among all our creations, however, one stands out significantly- the computer. Starting from the humble beginnings of the large machines that required punch cards. The computer has advanced quite exponentially. We have witnessed computing power increase and the size of computers decrease in accordance with Moore’s law. We have developed algorithms to make computers perform some basic routine tasks and cut out a lot of the superfluous activities that were necessary in the industrial age.

And now we are at the point of today’s most popular topic in computing: Artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our computers are now being taught not just to perform tasks, they are being taught to think. And here’s where it gets weird. If we could train computers to perform our tasks better than us, we may be able to get them to think faster and better than we are. We actually have.

The machines are finally smarter than we are

If you think the above statement is just an imaginary snippet, you’re wrong. The Artificial intelligence systems we have now are capable of thinking far better than we can and they’re beginning to beat us at our own games. Take two historically significant games for example- Chess and go which have both been played by powerful machines- Deep blue and Alpha Go respectively.

Deep Blue

Deep blue is the Artificial Intelligence machine which was built by IBM beginning in 1985. It played against the reigning world chess champion- grandmaster Gary Kasparov in 1996 and won the first game despite eventually losing the match. In 1997, deep blue was upgraded and once again faced Kasparov again, summarily defeating him this time. Chalk one up for the machines.

Alpha Go

Go is another board game that originated from Asia. It is a little more complicated than chess. Alpha Go was also designed as a computer with complex go playing abilities and it defeated one of the best go players in March 2016.

The algorithms have been able to outsmart our best players at playing some of our most complicated games. This is an interesting time to be alive and we can only look forward to how much more progress will be made with Artificial intelligence.

What does the future hold?

The plan currently is to extend the immense abilities of AI to more practical uses like Self driving cars, robots for assisting the disabled, and improved disease prevention and control. Hopefully, with careful precautions being taken, more advances in Artificial intelligence and machine learning will help to make human life far better than it is now.

Service Economy

This blog is about manufacturing and engineering and production, but sometimes services are important too. You need to know how to market and sell your products and the internet is becoming ever more important in that process. Many companies are good at what they do, but they have no idea how to take the best advantage of the internet. It can be very complex. Take a look at enchantedmarketing.org to see the various aspects involved in internet marketing. And this doesn’t even cover it all.

Many companies throw up a website and expect it to make a difference. That is like putting up a billboard in the middle of nowhere and expecting it to help sales. Seventy to seventy five per cent of all clicks go to the first three organic listings. If you don’t know what an organic listing is, look at the website mentioned above.

Proper Content

You need to have an adequate amount of text with keywords or phrases that people who are interested in your products and services are actually searching for. If you don’t have the right content, the search engines can’t connect your website with people searching for what you do.

Directories and Citations

Then it helps to be listed as many places as possible. These are directories and citations such as yellowpages.com and yelp.com but also hundreds of other sites that could list your company and products. If you don’t sign up on those, the people searching on those sights can’t find you. It also tells the search engines you are a more serious site and worth showing your site when people search.

Social Media

Similar to the directories and citations, you need to be listed on the search engines and social media. Google has Google My Business which lists businesses as does Bing Places of Microsoft’s, Facebook and LinkedIn. The same rational applies for these as the directories. Also, if you have a listing on a search engine, that search engine is more likely to show your website in organic listings.

Links

If other websites link to your website, that can help funnel people to see your website. But it is also an indication to the search engines that your site is good enough to be worth linking to.

Features vs. Benefits

There is nothing magical about this and it greatly predates computers and the internet. But, so many people still fall into this trap. They get so caught up in their product and how good it is that they only talk about the features. They forget to tell potential customers about how those features can benefit the customer. If the customer doesn’t understand how your product can save them time, save them money, make their job easier or some other benefit, the sale is going to be a lot harder. This needs to be conveyed on the website, just like any other marketing piece.

A Grand and Most Humble Welcome to Deepa Hydraulics

Welcome to our new website and blog, Deepa Hydraulics. We think the world of construction, engineering and similar jobs is fascinating. Hopefully you will too. Please come back soon to see posts with more content than this meager first offering.