The Pursuit Of Excellence: Overcoming Human Insufficiency With AI

Back in 2006 when I was competing to secure my place on the U.S. Olympic figure skating team, I often found my body working faster than my brain could think. I would spin at nearly 300 rotations per minute, feeling each of my 650-plus muscles engage. I remember wondering how I could overcome the inefficiencies of being human: pain, fear and disorientation. Apparently, I was asking the same question as the ancient Greeks, who envisioned thinking machines capable of out-performing the human brain. While the pursuit of machines with human-like intelligence is an ancient one, it wasn't until recently that artificial intelligence was actually possible.