5. Answer the questions.

1. What tasks is artificial intelligence concerned with?

2. Why do people want to automate human intelligence?

3. Is AI a field that overlaps with computer science or a strict subfield?

4. What sciences are different areas of AI closely related to?

5. What are philosophical debates on the issue of AI?

6. What positions resulting from the tests of Turing and Searle are there?

7. What disciplines is cognitive science based on?

8. What does it focus on?

9. What systems do applications in the cognitive science area of AI include?

Read the text, name it, divide the text into paragraphs.

Give the main idea of the text (2-3 sentences).

The human brain is made up of a web of billions of cells called neurons, and understanding its complexities is seen as one of the last frontiers in scientific research. It is the aim of AI researchers who prefer this bottom- up approach to construct electronic circuits that act as neurons do in the human brain. Although much of the working of the brain'remains unknown, the complex network of neurons is what gives humans intelligent characteristics. By itself, a neuron is not intelligent, but when grouped together, neurons are able to pass electrical signals through networks. Research has shown that a signal received by a neuron travels through the dendrite region, and down the axon. Separating nerve cells is a gap called the synapse. In order for the signal to be transferred to the next neuron, the signal must be converted from electrical to chemical energy. The signal can then be received by the next neuron and processed. Warren McCulloch after completing medical school at Yale, along with Walter Pitts, a mathematician, proposed a hypothesis to explain the fundamentals of how neural networks made the brain work. Based on experiments with neurons, McCulloch and Pitts showed that neurons might be considered devices for processing binary numbers. An important back of mathematic logic, binary numbers (represented as l’s and 0’s or true and false) were also the basis of the electronic computer. This link is the basis of computer- simulated neural networks, also know as Parallel computing.

Virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) is computer-simulated reality. Virtual reality is a fast-growing area of artificial intelligence that had its origin in efforts to build more natural, realistic, multisensory human/computer interfaces. So virtual reality relies on multisensory input-output devices such as a tracking headset with video goggles and stereo earphones, a data glove or jumpsuit with fiber-optic sensors that track your body movements, and a walker that monitors the movement of your feet. Then you can experience computer- simulated “virtual words” three-dimensionally through sight, sound and touch. Thus, virtual reality is also called telepresence. For example, you can enter a computer-generated world, look around and observe its contents, pick up and move objects and move around in it at will. Thus, virtual reality allows you to interact with computer-simulated objects, entities and environments as if they actually exist.

Current application of virtual reality are wide ranging and include computer-aided design (CAD), medical diagnostics and treatment, scientific experimentation in many physical and biological sciences, flight simulation for training pilots and astronauts, product demonstrations, employee training and entertainment, especially 3-D video arcade games. CAD is the most widely used industrial VR application. It enables architects and other designers to design and test electronic 3-D models of products and structures by entering the models themselves and examining, touching and manipulating sections and parts from all angels.

VR designers are creating everything from virtual weather patterns and virtual wind tunnels to virtual cities and virtual securities markets. For example, by converting stock market and other financial data into three-dimensional graphic form, securities analysts can use VR systems to more rapidly observe and identify trends and exceptions in financial performance. Also promising are applications in information technology itself. This includes the development of 3-D models of telecommunications networks and databases.

VR becomes telepresence when users that can be anywhere in the world use VR systems to work alone or together at a remote site. Typically, this involves using a VR system to enhance the sight and touch of a human who is remotely manipulating equipment to accomplish a task. Examples range from virtual surgery, where surgeon and patient may be on either side of the globe, to the remote use of equipment in hazardous environments such as chemical plants or nuclear reactors.

VR Limitations. The use of virtual reality seems limited only by the performance and cost of its technology. For example, some VR users develop cybersickness, such as eyestrain and motion sickness, from performance problems in the realism of VR systems. The cost of a virtual reality system is another limitation. A VR system consisting of a headset with goggles and headphones, a fiber-optic data glove, motion-sensing devices and a powerful engineering workstation with top-quality 3-D modelling software can exceed $ 50,000. If you want less cumbersome devices, more realistic displays and more natural sense of motion in your VR world, costs can escalate into several hundred thousand dollars. CAVEs (cave automatic virtual environments), virtual rooms that immerse you in a virtual reality experience, cost several million dollars to set up.

For example, the Market Risks Department of Morgan Stanly & Co. uses Discovery virtual reality software by Visible Decisions to model risks of financial investments in varying market conditions. Discovery displays three-dimensional results using powerful Silicon Graphics workstations.

Comments:

video goggle (захисні або темні) відеоокуляри

fiber optics оптоволоконний кабель//тонкий і гнучкий кабель

високої пропускної здатності для передавання світ­лових сигналів

stock market рівень цін на фондовій біржі

to immerse заглиблювати, занурювати

3-D video arcade games тривимірні аркадні ігри//клас комп'ютерних ігор зі сценарієм, який вимагає активних дій гравця під час проходження керованим ним персонажем численних рівнів

hazardous environment небезпечне середовище

to enhance посилювати