Artificial Intelligence Increasingly Tapped To Increase Profits

Artificial intelligence can boost business productivity and profitability -- as well as find ways to foster human happiness, according to the director of Hitachi's artificial intelligence laboratory. Interest in AI traditionally has centered on purpose-built technology crafted for a particular reason, such as Google's AI program that last year beat a champion player at the Chinese strategy game Go, said Kazuo Yano during a 14 December presentation at AAAS headquarters. The address was part of the Hitachi lecture series, which has brought speakers to AAAS for nearly a decade to examine a wide range of issues related to science and society. Yano, who serves as Hitachi's chief corporate scientist, noted that AI increasingly is being used to address the needs of business. To cope with changing variables like customer behavior and marketplace position, businesses now can take advantage of the flexibility offered by "general-purpose AI," which can be added to existing systems, he said.