HOULTON, Maine – On Monday, July 22, Rotarian Nate Bodenstab presented the impact of Artificial Intelligence to the Houlton Rotary Club.
“AI is the new electricity”, Bodenstab explained, “meaning it will revolutionize pretty much every industry.” He went on to detail how the same AI technology is powering autonomous cars, smart speakers (like Alexa or Google Home), one-day Amazon delivery, advances in agriculture, health care, and more.
In the agriculture industry, AI is being used to predict exactly when to plant and harvest, monitor soil composition with drones or satellites, and apply just the right chemicals to just the right locations in a field to optimize yield. In health care, AI is outperforming trained radiologists when identifying problems in CT scans or mammograms as well as accelerating the discovery of new life-saving drugs.
On a darker note, Bodenstab showed examples of a new AI technology called DeepFake that can be used to manufacture videos of any famous person saying anything the creator wants. “Be very careful when viewing content on Facebook or other social media sites as fake videos that look and sound real can be posted without repercussions.”
Bodenstab holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence and manages a large international team of researchers for Nuance Inc., a $2 billion AI company based in Boston. He has worked for Nuance since 2006 and was recently promoted to Nuance Fellow, the most prestigious research title awarded at the company.
