AI - Artificial intelligence : Will AI change the logistics world ?

What is Artificial intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence exhibited by machines. In computer science, an ideal "intelligent" machine is a flexible rational agent that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal. Colloquially, the term "artificial intelligence" is applied when a machine mimics "cognitive" functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as "learning" and "problem solving".[2] As machines become increasingly capable, facilities once thought to require intelligence are removed from the definition.

Capabilities currently classified as AI include successfully understanding human speech, competing at a high level in strategic game systems (such as Chess and Go , self-driving cars, and interpreting complex data.

AI research is divided into subfields that focus on specific problems or on specific approaches or on the use of a particular tool or towards satisfying particular applications.

The central problems (or goals) of AI research include reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, natural language processing (communication), perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. General intelligence is among the field's long-term goals.[8] Approaches include statistical methods, computational intelligence, soft computing (e.g. machine learning), and traditional symbolic AI. Many tools are used in AI, including versions of search and mathematical optimization, logic, methods based on probability and economics. The AI field draws upon computer science, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, neuroscience and artificial psychology.

The field was founded on the claim that human intelligence "can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it." This raises philosophical arguments about the nature of the mind and the ethics of creating artificial beings endowed with human-like intelligence, issues which have been explored by myth, fiction and philosophy

AI - Artificial intelligence : Will AI change the logistics world

Today our focus has been on KPIs, ERP, WMS, TMS, YMS, EDI, The Cloud, S and OP, 3 D Printing, IoT, IoE, Drones: Same Hour/Day/Time Delivery to Customers, Cyber Security, Theft, Government Regulations, E-Commerce, Omni-Channel, Modeling/Simulation, Risk Management, Tracking, Traceability, Re-shoring, Robotics, et al, BUT WHAT ABOUT AI - Artificial Intelligence / AI technologies?

AI is a controversy of deep, lasting dimensions. Will machines learn to think like humans…and then will the machines outthink us?

Global logistics provider DHL believes worldwide supply chains are beginning to undergo a fundamental transformation as more “artificial intelligence” is deployed to handle both the domestic and international movement of goods

According to research conducted in support of its recent 2016 Logistics Trend Radar, DHL thinks the impact of data-driven and autonomous supply chains provides an opportunity for “previously unimaginable levels of optimization” in manufacturing, logistics, warehousing and last mile delivery that could become a reality in less than half a decade, despite high set-up costs deterring early adoption within the logistics industry.

Matthias Heutger, senior vice president for strategy, marketing & innovation at DHL, said in a statement that 15 of the 26 “key trends” identified in the company’s annual trend radar report “are likely to make an impact in under five years” and thus bear careful watching by the global logistics industry.

The application of AI technologies has created the ability to understand, store and use product information in an entirely new way. AI technologies allow you to understand the underlying grammatical structure, the product DNA, used to build each product, together with all natural variations that potentially exist. AI gives you the ability to maintain these structures/natures of being dynamically continually learning and updating as new data passes through the system. Now you have a “smart attribute,” because AI technologies use what it “learns” on one product and transfers that knowledge when it recognizes the same descriptive synonyms used for a different product.

Using AI driven product nature of being and smart attributes, data can be structured to support the needs of ERP applications as well as strategic sourcing and Value Analysis activities, all from one data set. The data from this global virtual item master takes another step in its evolutionary journey and is refined using an online, cloud-based platform with user tools that automatically present the normalized data obtained from all sources, both internal and external, in natural English.

Practical Applications: Using AI Technologies to Maximize & Compliment Logistics Resources

Dr. Andy Chun, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Chief Executive Officer of a spin-off company from CityU, BonVision Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, which is a leading provider of AI technologies and his team have also applied AI techniques to other cargo handling companies, such as Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd, Hong Kong International Terminals, and Modern Terminals Ltd. Using a sophisticated set of AI rules and constraints, such as priority, cargo type, flight schedules, pick-up schedules and resource capabilities, resource assignments are made automatically to handle and process each container within each arriving/departing cargo aircraft.

"The system pays for itself by maximizing resource utilization, allowing the terminal operator to handle more business and generate more revenue," Dr Chun explained.

CityU has also worked with other transportation-related companies, such as Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway Corporation and the Kowloon Motor Bus Company to develop AI timetabling algorithms to increase service levels with limited resources.

However, the application of AI technologies to logistics is not limited to resource optimizing and scheduling, Dr Chun said. "Logistics require the collaboration of many parties and companies, all with their own peculiar processes, procedures and guidelines." Many companies are beginning to use AI rule-based techniques to help manage and monitor complex business processes and workflows, especially those that span organizational and geographical boundaries. "AI, combined with various e-business XML (Extensible Markup Language) standards, allows logistic companies to operate in real time, or what we refer to as zero latency.

Thought from The AI Technologies Pioneer

The pioneer of artificial intelligence is David Gelernter, and he has some radical ideas about the supremacy of the human mind. Gelernter observes that the mind operates in different ways through the course of each day. It works one way when it is on high alert, another on the edge of sleep. Then, as the body slumbers, the mind slips entirely free to wander dreamscapes that are barely remembered, much less understood.

All of these physical conditions go into the formation and operation of a human mind. “Until you understand this, you don’t have a chance of building a fake mind”, adds Gelernter.

AI technologies have become one of the defining facets of high tech. From Apple to Amazon, Facebook to Intel, Sergey Brin to Elon Musk, the titans of the 21st century are investing fortunes and countless hours in artificial intelligence. Google’s 2014 purchase of the British firm Deep Mind for something more than $ 400 million produced a bonanza of publicity earlier this year, when its game playing program whipped a human master of the ancient strategy game Go.

Mr. Ray Kruzwell: Futurist and Director of Engineering at Google: AI will be achieved by 2029. AI technologies can help find cures for diseases and clean up the environment. We have a moral imperative to realize this promise while controlling the peril.

Words of wisdom & quotes on AI

Sam Altman: President of startup Incubator Y Combinator: AI should be self-policed and used for benevolent ends only.

Michio Kaku: AI is an end of century problem. Use AI, but put a chip in the brain to stop them if necessary.

Bill Gates: Microsoft Co-Founder: It will be strong enough to be a concern.

Stephen Hawking: Theoretical Physicist: Most miraculous and catastrophic. The biggest event in human history. It could be the last event unless we learn how to avoid the risks.

Nick Bostrom: Director of The Future of Humanity Institute: AI could turn dark quickly, and dispose of humans.

Elon Musk: Spacex Founder: AI is tantamount to summoning the demon.

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