Magic is an element that has been very present in the history of mankind. From the oldest societies, which had mythical cults and believed fervently in both spells and enchantments, until today, where magic is no longer a reason for adoration, but it does generate curiosity and amazement in most people.
The incredible thing about magic is the lack of logical explanations for the phenomena it causes; However, a new technology has arrived to reveal these secrets.
In 2014, researchers from Queen Mary University in London, developed an application that allowed to perform simple magic tricks using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Phoney, name of the app, made the famous trick of "guess the letter" based on an algorithm.
The great magicians often say that "a magician never reveals his secrets"; However, the Phoney developers are technological innovators, not magicians, so they had no problem revealing the secret behind the tuco of their AI.
Artificial Intelligence used algorithms of great difficulty to perform the trick. The secret to guess the selected card was to take into account the colors of the surrounding cards.
According to the researchers, statistical data were also considered to determine which card is most likely to be selected by people when they are given a choice of a small number of options.
Although it would be believed that, being something technological based on mathematical algorithms, the AI would always be right when performing these tricks, it has been shown that this is not necessarily the case. The creator of this initiative, Howard Williams, indicated that the software has a margin of error of almost 20%.
Despite this, magicians have decided to rely on technological advances to improve personally and that their tricks are increasingly credible and realistic; This includes the adoption of AI in their presentations.
As the writer and scientific disseminator, Arthur C. Clark, said, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," reports Infobae.
At this point, it is important to clarify that one of the bases for the tricks of magicians and illusionists go well is their ability to read and connect with people, something in which Artificial Intelligence is significantly lower.
Facundo Carrillo, Researcher at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the UBA, strongly supported this idea, declaring that "the human mind still models much better than AI another human mind".
Although Artificial Intelligence has revealed part of its secrets to perform some tricks, even the most surprising and strange are the work of human magicians and illusionists, who, for the time being, plan to continue to keep hidden the explanations of their prowess.