Eliminating The Fear Factor of AI- A Tool, Or A Poison?
Artificial Intelligence is an emerging technology, which attempts to replicate human stimulus, intelligence and reasoning capabilities within automated systems. The term was first coined by John Mccarthy, who is accepted as the father of AI, coined the term in 1955.
Mccarthy described AI as “Every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions, and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves.”
Taking away all the technicalities, AI can simply be summarised as the capability of a computer or similar programme to learn and think on its own. Anything can fall under this classification, given that an artificial program is involved within the process, operating aspects which usually requires human level intelligence to accomplish.
This is a field which is of great fascination for those who are hooked onto the field. On the other hand, it strikes fear into the skeptics. Movie interpretations usually show AI in the villainous stature; starting off as humble servants than gradually evolving to take over and destroy man-kind. However, it should be noted that their is a massive difference between fantasy movie adaptations and reality.
The concerns posed are indeed ominous. Over replication of intelligence might seem as signs of the birth of technological warfare. However, is it all that bad? Lets consider the possible case scenarios (both the upsides and flip-sides) of a hypothetical world where AI has been completely perfected.
Reduction in Human Errors
The phrase ‘human errors’ is fitting, since humans inherently tend to make blunders from time to time. That is not the case for an automated system, given that its programmed properly. Artificial Intelligence will permit a programmed unit to make decisions based on previous data, utilizing a set algorithm.
A machine doing all the right work would seem a gift for those who wish to maintain a clean slate-free from blame. Using such technologies reduce errors, and the likeliness of achieving accuracy and precision is greatly heightened. For instance, utilizing an algorithm to evaluate the past weather trend, and monitoring the humidity and other related conditions have led AI systems working in weather forecasting reduce misinterpretations of the weather.
Takes risks that humans otherwise have to take
Arguably, this is the most important advantage of having AI around. Risks and limitations which humans usually have can be eliminated by simply using a machine to complete the task. This comes in handy if NASA or Tesla ever wanted to send an envoy to Mars, defuse a bomb, explore the deepest end of the ocean floors, coal and oil mining adventures. It can be sent as an agent to face any natural or man-made disaster.
Using an AI machine as a shield is the way to go. No risk means lesser casualties, and thus eliminates unnecessary collateral damage. Take the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion for instance. This is highly popular due to it’s TV series adaptation. The impact caused by the nuclear radiation would have been greatly reduced, but sadly, AI technology was not around at that time to save the day.
Daily Application
Computed methods for automated reasoning, learning and perception have become a common phenomenon in our everyday lives. We have our lady Siri or Cortana to help us out.
We are also hitting the road for long drives and trips with the help of GPS. The smartphone is an apt and everyday example of how we use artificial intelligence. In utilities, we find that they can predict what we are going to type and correct the human errors in spelling. That is machine intelligence at work.
When we take a picture, the artificial intelligence algorithm identifies and detects the person’s face and tags the individuals when we are posting our photographs on social media sites.
Artificial Intelligence is widely employed by financial institutions and banking institutions to organize and manage data. Detection of fraud uses artificial intelligence in a smart card based system.
Digital assistance
Use of digital assistance to interact and negotiate with customers saves the need of human resources. This is a tactic which many high end organisations dream of achieving. These digital assistants are ever present to guide those who enter the designated website to fulfill their requirements.
Customers can freely interact with these ‘Chat-bots’. Most of these bots are so sophisticated, that it is difficult to differentiate a real person from the bot. The internet is filled with those who send hilarious requests for the bots, only to find that its an actual human behind the screen.
If implemented accordingly, the bot could potentially help save the reputation of the organisation. As mentioned earlier, due to the absurd requests of customers, it is possible for the human behind the screen to get offended, or triggered. Since a robot is devoid from human emotion (as of now), such remarks will be ignored, and the negotiation will be carried out without conflict.
Faster decision making
Implementing AI in technologies permit the machine to take decisions quicker than a human would. Humans take certain factors into consideration before a decision is made. At times the decision is based on individual bias, preferences based on personal agendas and through emotion/ impulses. Since an AI is devoid from such worldly feelings, rational and practical solutions are provided, which ultimately bring better results.
Gamers know fully fell the depth of this scenario. The final boss of the game, or any NPC/ Computer generated opponent might seem difficult to overcome. The Chess game in Windows is extremely difficult to beat in hard mode, due to the unique algorithm which is implemented.
These are some advantages of Artificial Intelligence. Every new invention or breakthrough will have both its advantages as disadvantageous, but we as humans need to take care of that and use the positive sides of the invention to create a better world. Clearly, artificial intelligence has massive potential advantages.
The key for humans is to ensure that the “rise of the robots” doesn’t get out of hand. Some say that Artificial intelligence can destroy human civilization if it goes into wrong hands. However as of yet, none of the AI application made it to a scale that can destroy or enslave humanity.