9781422275115

Cool Careers in Science

Helping computers think Opportunities in health care, sports, and more

Benefits and risks

Intelligence Scientists

ALTERNATIVE REALITY DEVELOPERS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SCIENTISTS COMPUTER GAME & APP DEVELOPERS DRIVERLESS VEHICLE DEVELOPERS DRONE PILOTS ENTERTAINMENT ENGINEERS FORENSIC SCIENTISTS PROFESSIONAL HACKERS RENEWABLE ENERGY WORKERS ROBOTICS DEVELOPERS

Cool Careers in Science

Intelligence Scientists

ANDREW MORKES

MASON CREST PHILADELPHIA MIAMI

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, Pennsylvania 19008 (866) MCP-BOOK (toll-free)

Copyright © 2020 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

First printing

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HARDBACK ISBN: 978-1-4222-4294-0 SERIES ISBN: 978-1-4222-4292-6 EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-4222-7511-5

Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file with the Library of Congress

Developed and Produced by National Highlights, Inc. Interior and cover design: Jana Rade, impact studios Interior layout: Annalisa Gumbrecht, Studio Gumbrecht Production: Michelle Luke Proofreader: Susan Uttendorfsky

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 5: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Careers . . . . . . . 79 Photo Credits . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Further Reading & Internet Resources . . 93 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Educational Video Links . . . . . . . 96 Author Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 CHAPTER 1: What Do Artificial Intelligence Scientists Do? . . . . . . . . . . . 11 CHAPTER 2: Terms of the Trade . . . . 29 CHAPTER 3: Preparing for the Field and Making a Living . . . . . . . . . . 43 CHAPTER 4: Key Skills and Methods of Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

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Introduction

CAREERS IN SCIENCE OFFER GOOD PAY, THE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP PEOPLE, AND OTHER REWARDS

Where would we be without science? Well, we’d be without computers, smartphones, and other cutting-edge technologies. Crimes would take longer to solve without modern forensic analysis techniques. More of our private information would be stolen by hackers. We’d be stuck relying on environmentally unfriendly fossil fuels instead of using renewable energy. And life would be less fun because we wouldn’t have drones; awe-inspiring and physics-defying roller coasters; the apps that we use to help us to stay fit, find directions, and get the news; and the computer and video games that we play for hours and hours. Job markets are sometimes strong and sometimes weak, but a career in science (which, for the purposes of this series, includes the related fields of technology and engineering) is almost a sure path to a comfortable life. The following paragraphs provide more information on why a career in science is a great choice. Good pay. People in science careers earn some of the highest salaries in the work world. Median annual salaries for those in computer and mathematical careers in the United States are $84,575, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (USDL). This is much higher than the median earnings ($37,690) for all careers. Additionally, those in life, physical, and social science occupations can earn $64,510, and those in engineering careers earn $79,180. Science

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professionals who become managers or who launch their own businesses can earn anywhere from $150,000 to $300,000 or more. Strong employment prospects. There are shortages of science workers throughout the world, according to the consulting firm ManpowerGroup. In fact, engineering workers are the third most in-demand occupational field in the world. Technicians rank fourth, and computer and information technology professionals rank sixth. There’s a shortage of software engineers in more than twenty countries, including in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the United Kingdom, according to the recruitment firm Michael Page. Other science careers where there is a shortage of workers include electronics engineers (nineteen countries), electrical engineers (sixteen countries), data analysts (eleven countries), and hardware engineers (six countries), among other workers. The USDL predicts that employment of computer and information technology professionals in the United States will grow by 13 percent during the next decade. Career opportunities for those in life, physical, and social science occupations will grow by 10 percent. Both of these career fields are growing faster than the average for all careers. The outlook is also good for engineering professionals. Employment is expected to grow by 7 percent during the next decade. The strongest opportunities will be found in renewable energy and robotics (including artificial intelligence). By 2026, the USDL predicts that there will be more than 876,000 new jobs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Rewarding work environment and many career options. A career in science is fulfilling because you get to use both your creative and practical sides to develop new technologies (or improve existing ones), solve problems, and make the world a better place. There’s a common misconception that science workers

8 COOL CAREERS IN SCIENCE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SCIENTISTS

spend most of their time in dreary, windowless laboratories or offices. While they do spend lots of time in the laboratory or offices, they also spend time in the field, testing, troubleshooting, and trying out their inventions or discoveries. Some science professionals launch their own businesses, which can be both fun and very rewarding. Job opportunities are available throughout the United States and the world. Science professionals play such an important role in our modern world that there are jobs almost anywhere, although many positions are found in big cities .

IS A CAREER IN SCIENCE RIGHT FOR ME? Test your interest. How many of these statements do you agree with?

___ I am curious about how things work.

___ My favorite classes in school are computer- and science-related. ___ I like to learn about scientific breakthroughs.

___ I like to invent things.

___ I have a good imagination.

___ I like to build electronics and other things that require electricity.

___ I like to use technology to solve problems.

___ I like to build and fix things.

___ I am good at math.

___ I enjoy doing science experiments.

If many of the statements above describe you, then you should consider a career in the sciences. But you don’t need to select a career right now. Check out this book on a career as an artificial intelligence scientist, and other books in the series, to learn more about occupational paths in the sciences and related fields. Good luck with your career exploration!

Introduction 9

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

futurists: experts with knowledge of a wide range of fields who make educated guesses about what will happen in the future

inhospitable: an environment that is challenging and difficult to live in

liberal arts: the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities

machine learning: a branch of artificial intelligence that involves programming and teaching systems to learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions with little human intervention Swahili: a language that is spoken on the east coast of Africa; it is also called kiSwahili and Kiswahili

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Chapter 1

WHAT DO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SCIENTISTS DO? THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Driverless vehicles. Alexa. Siri. Nest. Drones. These are just a few examples of products or systems that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI). The use of AI is helping companies save time and money, and it is making our lives easier and providing us with more free time. But what actually is “artificial intelligence?” Let’s break down the phrase. “Intelligence” is the brain power that humans and any other living organism use to accomplish daily tasks, solve problems, and do many other things. “Artificial” is something that is created to stand in for the original product or action. So, AI is the simulation of human intelligence (perceiving, reasoning, learning, problem solving, etc.) by machinery and computer systems. But it is much more than that. Artificial intelligence scientists seek to teach computers to not only think, learn, and act like humans, but to eventually do so without any human interaction. We’re a long way from doing

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Nissan and other vehicle manufacturers are currently developing driverless cars that may eventually make up the majority of vehicles on our roads.

so, but the field of AI has advanced rapidly in the last decade due to increased computing power and more funding for AI research. AI already plays a major role in our society, but scientists predict a future in which AI-enabled computers and machines do more and more without human oversight so that we have more free time to pursue intellectual interests or simply enjoy our lives. “Machines will perform the tasks that we don’t want to: the mundane jobs, the dangerous jobs,” says Dr. Stephen Cave, Executive Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. “And they’ll do the tasks we aren’t capable of—those involving too much data for a human to process, or where the machine is simply faster, better, cheaper.” It is easy to underestimate the effect that AI will have on modern life over the next decade or two. Its use will change the way we work, the way we live our private lives, the way militaries fight wars, and the way in which many other processes and systems have operated for decades. The use of AI will have

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both positive and negative effects (but we’ll cover that later). Although many technical and financial challenges still must be overcome to create AI-enabled computers and robots that can do anything that humans can do, it’s clear that artificial intelligence is here to stay. Seventy-six percent of Americans surveyed by Gallup and Northeastern University in 2017 “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that AI would fundamentally change the way people lived and worked in the next decade. Seventy-seven percent were “very positive” or “mostly positive” about the effects AI would have on these areas.

DID YOU KNOW? The term “artificial intelligence” may sound futuristic, but it was actually first coined in 1956 at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence workshop, which was organized by a mathematics professor named John McCarthy. In his plan for the event, he stated that the conference was “to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.”

USES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AI is used in a wide range of fields, including shipping, banking, transportation, accounting, health care, astronomy, agriculture, human resources, security, and the military. Amazon, Google, IBM, Apple, Netflix, eBay, and countless other companies, large and small, are incorporating AI into their products and services. In fact, the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that tech giants spent $20–$30 billion on AI worldwide in 2016. This number has increased each year. Government agencies and militaries all over the world are also trying to harness the power of AI. The following paragraphs provide some examples of how AI is used in various industries.

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Agriculture: AI-powered robots are used to plant, monitor, and harvest crops. Robots with visual scanning capabilities are used to assess whether a plant is a pest in order to treat it with a pesticide. (A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances that is used to prevent, destroy, repel, or reduce the presence of a pest—insects, weeds, mold, etc.) Autonomous and semi-autonomous drones are now used to check on the health of crops and cattle, search for the presence of pests and assess the degree of flooding of farmland, and apply pesticides and fertilizer (a natural or chemical substance that is added to the soil to help make plants grow better). AI-enabled apps are also being developed and used in agriculture. For example, PlantVillage and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture have developed a mobile app called Nuru (which is Swahili for “light”) that uses AI and machine learning to teach computers how to recognize symptoms of disease on crops. The user installs the app on their smartphone, takes a photo of the diseased plant, and a disease diagnosis is quickly provided. The app also provides disease-management information and advice. Aviation: The commercial airline industry has used autopilot (a form of AI) for decades to fly its jets. The New York Times reports that the average flight of a Boeing aircraft involves only seven minutes of pilot-steered flight—typically for takeoffs and landings. AI software handles the rest. Banking: Have you ever watched your mom or dad quickly scan and deposit a check by using a smartphone app? If so, they can thank AI and machine-learning technology, which deciphers handwriting on checks and converts it into text via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. Business: Companies are using AI to hire workers, forecast demand for their products or services, and communicate with customers. They also are using AI to monitor employees to see if they are working hard, wearing required safety gear, and interacting effectively with coworkers. While this type of use of AI can improve worker productivity, it’s also controversial. Many people worry that the

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Illegal fishing is a major problem throughout the world. Above, an illegal fishing catch of finned sharks in Palau, Micronesia.

introduction of AI may violate their privacy and not always provide an accurate picture of their job performance. Environmental Protection: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States estimates that up to $23 billion worth of seafood is stolen from our oceans annually by illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. To stop this theft, Google created Global Fishing Watch, an initiative that uses AI and satellite data to determine in real-time if illegal fishing is occurring. The technology creates an average of 22 million data points each day that allow analysts—with the assistance of machine learning—to identify why a specific commercial vessel is at sea.

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Learn about the work of artificial intelligence analysts at the Internal Revenue Service

Financial Services: In 2016, thieves in the United States stole $16 billion via credit card and identity theft fraud, according to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research. This type of fraud is becoming a major issue, and banks are working hard to stop cybercriminals. Many banks are using AI technology to determine in real-time if a credit card or other financial transaction is fraudulent. When a fraudulent transaction is detected, it can be canceled before any money is stolen.

DID YOU KNOW? AI is not typically sold as a separate application. Instead, it is added as a feature to existing products or systems (for example, Siri, an AI-enabled personal assistant, was added to existing Apple products).

Health Care: AI technology is being developed to reduce the time it takes to make diagnoses and plan medical treatments. Infervision, a Chinese company, recently developed a computer algorithm to augment the work of radiologists,

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