Question: Do you enjoy being a scientist as much now as when you first started?

Huma Shah answered on 10 Nov 2016:

Hello Jess,

Yes I enjoy being a scientist now as much as when I first began as a professional scientist – by that I mean started doing my doctorate.

It is enjoyable because the field I research in fundamental artificial intelligence – the Turing test, has seen some boost by big tech companies getting involved. Turing said a machine could be developed to play chess, in 1997 IBM built a machine, Deep Blue which beat a chess grandmaster, Gary Kasparov, at chess. Again IBM pushed the boundaries with another machine, IBM Watson in 2011 which beat two human general knowledge quiz show contestants in a US TV show, Final Jeopardy!

Watson machine is a reverse question-answer system, from receiving an answer to a question it can search through its knowledge base to figure out what question that answer is the solution to, you can read more here:

It’s alive: IBM’s Watson supercomputer defeats humans in final Jeopardy match

Apple’s SIRI was also introduced on its iPhone in 2011, it will get better at speech recognition and be able to talk more and more like a human.

So advances in artificial intelligence does make studying in the field enjoyable, how far can we go, and do we also want to be chipped with technological implants to make us keep our memories for longer and be more smart. More questions make being a scientist enjoyable as much now as earlier.

Huma