AI & ML - Powering the Agents of Automation

Demystifying, IOT, Robots, ChatBots, RPA, Drones & Autonomous Cars- The new workforce led Digital Reinvention facilitated by AI & ML and secured through Blockchain

Vijay Cuddapah

• Publisher: BPB Publications
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9789388511636
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Engineering
• Index: Computer Science

Learn Why, What, Where, When Who and How behind the technologies of the AI & ML powering the Agents of Automation in a simple manner. Key Features

• Explore various trends of Automation impacting our lives today.
• Explains the reasons behind the proliferations of the various bots and autonomous agents.
• Explores the various areas being impacted by the use of these new workforce made of machines.
• Examines the components that make up Robots, Chatbots, Autonomous cars and Drones.
• Throws a light on the various limitations and threats encountered by the Agents of Automation
• Explores how, Blockchain can be used to protect IOT, Robots, Drones and Autonomous cars.
• Throws a light on the various tools used to build Robots, Chatbots and RPA.
• Outlines the steps undertaken to manage while building projects to deploy the Agents of Automation.

Description
We are faced with automatic machines and autonomous agents gradually replacing a lot of activities, hitherto have been carried out by humans. From airports to call centers, shop floors in the factory to accounting and finance departments in large businesses, we are finding increasing applications of AI & ML led automation.
Most of the time, the autonomous machines we interact with or work with, like the Robots, Drones and Self driving cars evoke awe, inspiration & perplexity at the same time. They seem to be the tools only used by the most technology empowered organizations and technology geeks.
The effort of this book is to go under the veil of all these automation agents, explain their benefits and expose the way they work by leveraging hardware and software powered by AI & ML as well. We expect the book to demystify these technologies to the learners in a reader friendly manner without using too much of jargon, egging them to take the next step to develop a passion to follow and leverage these trends for their productivity and enhance their quality of life. What You Will Learn
From this book, you will get a very good idea about the various agents of automation like IOT, Robots, Chatbots, and Robotic Process Automation, Drones and Autonomous cars. Why do we use these machines? Where do we use them? Where do we find their applications? What are the components that go into making of these machines? High level knowledge on how we can build them and what are the advantages, disadvantages, risks and appropriate way to limit these risks. Who This Book is For
This book is for all the students and those passionate to get a fundamental knowledge on various aspects of Disruptive technologies prevalent today like IOT, AI, ML, Blockchain and Automation.
Engineering students, CXOs in organizations, Government officials, Digital natives and the young generation of technology enthusiasts will find this book extremely interesting and informative. Table of Contents

• Introduction to Automated Personal Assistants: Past, Present & The Future
• Disruptive models led by digitization
• Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, The languages of Automation
• Internet Of Things, Industry 4.0 And Factories Of Tomorrow
• Robots
• Robotic Process Automation
• Drones
• Chatbots & Voice Assistants
• Autonomous Cars
• Artificial Intelligence & Automation Gone Wrong
• Blockchain-The New Generation Tool For Cybersecurity
• Blockchain As A Protector Of The Agents Of Automation
• Summary and Conclusion
• Chapter Wise Questions
• Glossary: Agents Of Automation

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to
Automated Personal
Assistants: Past, Present
and Future

Automatic teller machines, automatic vending machines, automatic ticket vending machines, automated check-in counters, automated baggage check-ins at airports, and automated immigration counters at international airports are some of the machines we see in our day-to-day life. The various places where we use automated machines is shown in the following image:

Fig 1.1 Automatic machines for tickets, cash and products and at airports for check-in, baggage, and immigration

Completely automated retail counters (e.g. Amazon GO), hotels and restaurants, personal assistants such as Apple Siri, Google Home, Amazon Echo are the manifestations of automation enabled by advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning that we are experiencing more and more.

The complete transformation that a retail store undergoes with automation is depicted in the following image:

Fig 1.2 Amazon Go: Advanced technologies to fully automate the retail experience

(Figure courtesy: https://www.amazon.com/ )

From ATMs of the yesteryears to the advanced voice activated personal assistants that understand our needs and moods to respond are replacing many jobs that were hitherto being done by human beings. This is a growing and irreversible trend of these manifestations of automation.

It is possible that in the future that when you pass by an ATM in a bank, it identifies you by name, recognizes your need for a loan and offers you att ractive terms on the spot while enticing you to its location using a voice activated and geolocation targeted message. This then would be the foreseeable future of the banking as we know. The same can be true for any area as the power of AI is considerably enhanced with the confluence of Big data, Cloud and Machine learning technologies.

Welcome to the world of humanoids and autonomous machines.

Fig 1.3 It is going to be difficult in future to identify whether you are dealing with a man or a machine!

We will take a close look at these agents of automation in the coming chapter as we analyze the anatomy of these machines and track their journey into the future.

CHAPTER 1

Disruptive Models
Led By Digitization

Introduction:

Home automation, factory automation, AI and ML led analytics are making deep rooted and disruptive impact on various aspects of our lives.

We now know that drones can fly, robots can jump, and bots can listen, talk, think, crawl, att ack and beat the world’s best in thinking games. Guess what would happen if all this combines into one unit or a body!

This is the power of Artificial Intelligence powered with the boosting characteristics of Machine learning and Deep learning! 2019 in many ways is seeing the convergence of a number of advancements in the adoption of cutt ing-edge technologies. It is now clear in no uncertain terms that the future is gett ing increasingly ‘Autonomous’. Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning are combining together for a rapid adoption of automation across the spheres of our personal and corporate lives.

The organizations that are winning the race for market supremacy in every field are the biggest exponents of these powerful technologies. With the increasing trends of digitization, decentralization, and automation, adoption of cloud and open source technologies is resulting in a manifold increase in data generation, analysis and consumption. The Big Data technologies are increasingly adopted and this has resulted in the rapid adoption of Artificial intelligence-led analytics, bolstered by the productive utilization of Machine learning algorithms effectively.

The organizations that are able to create a strong foundation of data-based technologies and exponents of data analytics are reaping rewards of their investments in such areas. According to the consultancy firm, Accenture, ‘automation, minibots, machine learning and adaptive intelligence are becoming part of the finance team at lightning speed’.

STRUCTURE:

• Changing face of the new workforce
• Fair and sustainable practices

OBJECTIVES:

In this chapter, we will briefly look at the different manifestations of the digitization and automation that are making an impact on various aspects of our environment and working life. We shall also look at some of the organizations that are working in the various aspects of digitization and automation. We will also see how Blockchain can help in the process of securing the automated world of the future.

Companies like Google, Amazon, Netflix, and Facebook have taken the usage of analytics and marketing automation to a totally different level which has further strengthened their market dominance in their respective areas. The term ‘Data is the new Oil’ has never been more true.

The current situation can be summarized in the following joke:

It may be a joke, but quite possible with today’s technology of Big Data, AI, Predictive Analytics, Social Applications, Recommendation Engines, Next Best Action, etc., all coming together.

____________________

Hello! Is this Gordon’s Pizza?

No sir, it’s Google’s Pizza.

Did I dial the wrong number?

No sir, Google bought the pizza store.

Oh, alright then I’d like to place an order please.

Okay sir, do you want the usual?

The usual? You know what my usual is?

According to the caller ID, the last 15 times you’ve ordered a 12-slice

with double-cheese, sausage, and thick crust.

Okay that’s what I want this time too.

May I suggest that this time you order an 8-slice with ricott a, arugula, and tomato instead?

No, I hate vegetables.

But your cholesterol is not good.

How do you know?

Through the subscriber’s guide. We have the results of your blood tests for the last 7 years.

Maybe so, but I don’t want the pizza you suggest. I already take medicine for high cholesterol.

But you haven’t taken the medicine regularly. 4 months ago you
purchased from Drug sale Network a box of only 30 tablets.

I bought more from another drugstore.

It’s not showing on your credit card sir.

I paid in cash.

But according to your bank statement you did not withdraw that much cash.

I have another source of cash.

This is not showing on your last tax form, unless you got it from an
undeclared income source.

To HELL with your pizza..!!

ENOUGH!!

I’m sick of Google, Facebook, Twitt er, and WhatsApp. I’m going to an
island without internet, where there’s no mobile phone line, and no one
to spy on me
I understand sir, but you’ll need to renew your passport. It expired 5
weeks ago.

CHANGING FACE OF THE NEW WORKFORCE: WELCOME TO ROBOTS, CHATBOTS, IOT DEVICES, CONNECTED CARS, RPA and FLYING DRONES

I had 1,000 employees last year. Next year, I am targeting 800 humans, 25 robots, 10 chatbots, and 1,000 connected things. Could well be the outlook of a ‘Human Resource Head’ in a thriving company of the future!

It is not just the organizations. The ‘Bot’ revolution is going to permeate every segment of our infrastructure. If the vision of global leaders like #Cisco has to be noted, connected devices are a part and parcel of every piece of our future landscape cutt ing across organizations, cities, functional areas and services, which is why Cisco calls it IOE or Internet of Everything! Source (#Cisco PR).

#Cisco filed US patent application 20170302663, an invention that it terms ~Blockchain-based #IoT [Internet of Things] Device Identity Verification and Anomaly Detection” that enables a #Blockchain-based system record changes to the conditions affected and captured by sensors (i.e., smart objects) in a network and instrumentalize network relationships and the data that the network generates in order to exercise control over those nodes is one of the many patents filed to integrate IOT devices into the Blockchain ecosystem. The need of the hour as we employ edge-enabled devices for computing to empower the once dumb IOT devices to do what they are supposed to do and not something dangerous!

Fig 2.1 Automaton across factories of tomorrow

In future, it is possible that organizations will be employing high levels of automation of manual and repetitive tasks across the length and breadth of their operations to interact with customers, employees, vendors, channel partners at various locations. These could be through self-servicing queries for information retrieved within the organizations or queries handled through external party API integrations.

There could be different bots and robots such as:

a)	Front office bot that greets and directs the visitors to their respective destinations and also handles routine queries (Ex: Reception bot employed by Kerala state police headquarters)
b)	HR bots engaging with the employees to answer routine queries or conduct environmental surveys.
c)	Customer engagement bots on online outposts and for servi...