Before I even get a chance to speak with Greek Australian artificial intelligence expert John Zakos, I am taken aback by the way he signs off emails.
“Never send a human to do a machine’s job” is the last note you see under his signature as Chief Intelligence Officer at the company he co-created, MyCyberTwin. A certain apprehension takes me over each and every time I read it. I don’t know if I expect some robot to come in and take over my job and my role in society, but given the science fiction movies I watch, it’s not too far off. So I am curious to firstly find out why John signs off his emails like this, and whether or not we should be encouraging machines to ultimately take our jobs.
John first saw this expression as part of an exhibition at MOMA in New York. His initial reaction was positive, and felt that this saying encompasses all the things he is trying to achieve with technology, but is quick to point out that this does not mean he is trying to substitute humans.
“If you have a look at the role technology has played historically, there are a lot of times machines been introduced and humans have never returned to do that job,” John tells Neos Kosmos, giving me the example of tractors in farming, replacing a hand-held plough which saw people spend their day traipsing up and down fields.
“It frees the human to do better things with their time and that expression encapsulates those points and the technology we work with in terms of developing virtual humans.”
I know logically that the dread and fear I am feeling stems from the unknown. I am speaking with a man who develops artificial intelligence (AI), and has been doing so since he was 15, for a living. He takes my trepidation in stride and explains what AI is to me – an IT philistine.
“It’s about the science and engineering of creating computers to think and solve problems like a human would.
“Computers remain amazing and effective tools that play a role in performing certain tasks that humans don’t want to do or it’s cheaper and more effective with technology.”
But won’t they take over – the robots? The computers? Where does it leave humans?
“We make machines interact with us,” starts John, “in a way that’s natural to us.
“We breath, we talk, we look around – we do these things in such a natural way so why don’t we make machines go natural to interact with us?”
He talks of making computers ‘humanised’ and ‘conversational’ in their everyday interactions with humans. Cars, homes, fridges – he says the future for humans is going to be an interactive environment between us and technology.
“In years to come the gap between the real world and the virtual world will become much smaller.”
John’s first introduction to computers was as a 14-year-old student. He was lucky enough to attend one of the first high schools to have computer studies.
In one particular class, the teacher gave the pupils a piece of code to enter into the computer. He remembers typing this code onto the green screen of the then clunky monitors. Then, John heard the computer churn the information and the noise of the printer, and there it was on computer paper – the two words: ‘Hello World’.
“I was absolutely mesmerised and fascinated, and I thought ‘if you can get a computer to do that so simply with a couple of lines of code, imagine what you could do if you spent more time with it, making it advanced and sophisticated’.”
At the time John went to study computer science at university, information technology was a sought after career choice. He completed a PHD in AI, and co-created the company MyCyberTwin.
“At MyCyberTwin, we work on creating virtual twins that manifest themselves for customer service applications or consumer applications,” he explains of the work the company does.
At a high level, John says his biggest achievement thus far is succeeding in bringing this technology to a reality, and getting it used in the marketplace. For him, it’s been a rewarding experience, dreaming up these concepts at a young age in his lounge room, developing a prototype, doing the research and development, and now, as a 35-year-old, working hard to make the technology come into fruition.
And he has imparted that drive, that motivation, and the satisfaction he feels, to the youth of Greece. In order to increase entrepreneurship in the young adults of Greece, John attended the conference ASTAC – a research and academic conference for high school students to get involved with the science, engineering and IT industries.
Students from all over Greece attend this conference to boost their skills and heighten their desire to work in this industry. The conference – held in Greece last month – gave students the opportunity to research an idea and then have it peer reviewed. They each presented their findings and engaged with other industry experts, including John.
“I did this conference to set an example ,” he explains, adding the goal is that any student – who as a result of sharing their ideas and experiences – will be inspired to follow through with a career in IT. John has offered to mentor any students interested in learning more, in an attempt to boost the burgeoning industry in the Hellenic Republic.