Taking the first steps in an AI-enabled world
I have never been to Wuzhen or any of the other major internet conferences. Nor have I ever interacted with a “smart robot,” “mined” virtual currencies or dabbled in chatbots. But increasingly, I am becoming resigned to the fact it’s time to bite the bullet and get up to speed on what seems like a world changing in technological terms at a pace like never before.
Technology, in different guises, is here and right among us, intertwined with our daily lives and anyone who thinks they can successfully keep away from the growing tentacles of artificial intelligence and its like are fooling themselves.
And it’s ‘people of a certain age’ — and I include myself in this — who are struggling most. Despite 50 years of life experience, this new avalanche of technical knowhow appears to be overwhelming people of my generation the most. I have tried my damndest to steer free of these new ways — but here and now, I announce I have decided to grit my teeth and embrace it.
Just how far behind I am came as a shock. My teenage son was telling me the other day about the latest AI-based gaming headsets that one of his college mates has — a virtual full-head helmet which transforms them both into different worlds — and how it was making gaming an exhilarating and personal experience.
Until that moment, online gaming for me was still Pacman or Super Mario, and not the much-hyped War of the Worlds or the like, which is captivating the younger — and not so younger — generation.
Even the expression is something of a puzzle. After all, created intelligence is a difficult concept to grasp. Experts say it is not just another product or service, but a fundamental shift in enabling high-tech that can be added to existing processes and services to make them smarter, more efficient, more accurate and more useful.
China is undoubtedly becoming the global leader in AI.
In a recent article, Kai-Fu Lee, the chairman and chief executive of Sinovation Ventures and a noted venture capitalist, said with significant combined structural advantages, China has already created ambitious development plans to become the world leader in AI by 2030, building a domestic industry worth almost US$150 billion.
According to Lee, it’s the country’s huge pool of data that’s so critical to how AI is being applied almost everywhere. It’s the gold dust that increasingly strong companies and research labs are finding the best ways to use.
With a well-established and explosively ambitious technology startup ecosystem; and genuine political will to advance the AI agenda with State support and massive financial backing, of course, as in many previous economic and industrial battlegrounds, it’ll be China facing up to the United States to lead the way.
But Lee also sounds a note of social caution. AI is not only becoming more proficient than people in advanced and routine tasks, it could also lead to massive job displacement. “I believe AI and automation will be capable of replacing 50 percent of current job tasks in the next 10 to 15 years,” he said.
Robots are already replacing workers in warehouses, drivers in car seats, and we could even find ourselves visiting the robo-doc or robonurse before long. Editors? How long before we’re an endangered species?