What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. The term may also be applied to any machine that exhibits traits associated with a human mind such as learning and problem-solving.
The goals of artificial intelligence include learning, reasoning, and perception or simply mimicking human cognitive activity.
AI is being used across different industries including finance and healthcare.
Weak AI tends to be simple and single-task oriented, while strong AI carries on tasks that are more complex and human-like.
Some believe that innovators may soon be able to develop systems that exceed the capacity of humans to learn or reason out any subject.
After scrutiny, scientists and engineers suggest that machines will become so highly developed that humans will not be able to keep up and they will take off on their own, redesigning themselves at an exponential rate.
Growth of AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is bringing a dramatic shift in the world of technology where it can be applied for more productivity. From just a cell phone to the diagnosis of diseases, AI is now being used in many fields, offering high-performance and precise device operation with quality.
We are already related to AI in some way or the other, whether it is Siri, or Alexa, thanks to technological innovations. These are Weak AIs but world is moving towards advancement; here are few examples in which growth of Artificial Intelligence can be seen today:
AI systems are increasingly being used by content and news organisations to discover data from various sources and instantly summarize it into content or supporting analysis for those articles.
AI-based innovation will play a key role in assisting people in maintaining their wellbeing by continuous tracking and coaching, as well as ensuring earlier diagnosis, personalized care, and more effective reassessments. AI is thought to have the ability to enhance every phase of healthcare operations and service.
Virtual reality robots can gradually penetrate the home as the use of sensors and hardware expands. AI would make the future of the entertainment industry more social, personalized, and entertaining.
As the fastest growing economy with the world’s second-largest population, India has a big stake in the AI revolution. In order to solve social problems, Indian start-ups are growing and developing AI solutions in education, health, financial services, and other fields.
An AI-based flood forecasting model that has been implemented in Bihar is now being expanded to cover the whole of India to ensure that around 200 million people across 2,50,000 square kilometres get alerts and warnings 48 hours earlier about impending floods. These alerts are given in nine languages and are localised to specific areas and villages with adequate use of infographics and maps to ensure that it reaches all.
As AI works for digital inclusion in India, it will have a ripple effect on economic growth and prosperity. Analysts predict that AI can help add up to $957 billion to the Indian economy by 2035.
Pros and Cons of AI
Pros-
Machine makes decisions based on previous data records. With algorithms, the chances of errors are reduced. This is an achievement, as solving complex problems requires difficult calculations that can be done without any error.
It reaches the place where humans can’t reach. Thus, helps to solve issues in no time.
The complete absence of emotions from a machine makes it more efficient as they are able to make the right decisions in a short span of time. The best example of this is its usage in healthcare.
Due to the programming of the robots, they can perform a more laborious task with extra hard work and with greater responsibility. Moreover, they do not wear out easily.
A machine doesn’t require breaks like the way humans do. They are programmed for long hours and can continuously perform without getting bored or distracted. The machine does not get tired, even if it has to work for consecutive hours.
Cons-
It requires huge costs as some machines are complex. Apart from the installation costs, its repair and maintenance also require huge costs.
Machines can’t be creative. They can only do what they are being taught or commanded. No matter how much a machine outgrows, it can’t inherit the intuitive abilities of the human brain and can’t replicate it.
Another contentious issue many people have with artificial intelligence is how it may affect human employment. With many industries looking to automate certain jobs through the use of intelligent machinery, there is a concern that people would be pushed out of the workforce. Self-driving cars may remove the need for taxis and car-share programs, while manufacturers may easily replace human labour with machines, making people's skills more obsolete. 50-75 million Jobs worldwide that will be affected due to the advent of AI.
> The biggest threat!
Future generations will grow comfortable with the radical advances of their time and become highly dependent on the services AI provides – just like how we have become reliant on the Internet to communicate, research and work.
But as we weave AI into our everyday existence, AI would gradually do the opposite - spiraling progress should ultimately result in AI's ability to self-develop. Instead of being siloed to their respective task, AI's collective intelligence would then begin to integrate and eventually yield even greater and faster advances as its processing might compound. When AI entities are given the autonomy to pick and choose their own evolutionary path.
At that moment it would have transcended its creators in many ways. And thus, the era of artificial super intelligence (ASI) would have arrived.
Even if these incidents don’t take place, AI will have a dramatic impact on human society, where we will be super dependent on these technologies and lose self competence. We need to work as hard as possible to ensure that AI is beneficial for humanity, not a threat to it.
It will be up to the regulators and scientists to create a concrete framework for AI to grow at a healthy pace.
“AI is likely to be either the best or worst thing to happen to humanity.”
-Stephen Hawking
Creating Awareness
We have seen in movies like Robot(2010), Avengers: Age of Ultron(2015) where humans’ created Super-AIs takes over and creates mass destruction in no time. Like today we are disrupting ourselves by creating over-dependence on tech. This technological addiction is pulling us apart and making us arrogant which leads to chaos and thus self-annihilation.
In order for humans to remain able to engage in some form of meaningful communication with AI in the years ahead we need to be sure to develop AIs that value and care for the well-being of humanity because without an ethical framework, advanced AIs will only seek to fulfill their own ambitions of self preservations and forget to be kind.
>Symbiotic Relationship (between Humans and AI)
Symbiosis is a close relationship between two species in which at least one species benefits. For ex., Fungi provides shelter to algae and algae provides food to fungi.
Likewise, AI must be programmed in such a manner where they are only beneficial to humans and not in a way where they question their creators abilities and outdo us. Working together (Humans & AIs), each can produce results that exceed what either can achieve alone. The corollary to this is that AI systems rely on human input just as much as human workers rely on intelligent automation.
Symbiosis between humans and AI can be said to be a relationship that enhances each other’s abilities. As it's said “anything in excess is bad”, AI shouldn't be over-developed, instead they need to be designed in a way where AI develops and supports humans in the future, where they harmoniously help to create a better society.
Conclusion
Samuel Butler(novelist) in 1863 published an essay called ‘Darwin among the machines’, in which he expressed serious concern about the possibility that a highly advanced machine might pose an existential risk to humanity. He wrote, “Day by day however the machines are gaining ground upon us. Day by day, we are becoming more subservient to them. More men are daily bound as slaves to tend them. More men are daily devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time but the time will come when the machines will hold a real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question.”
Our world's end may come in forms of natural disasters like super volcanoes or asteroid impacts but an existential risk can also be self-induced or man-made like weapons of mass destruction but some people think digital superintelligence is far more greater threat to humanity than nuclear weapons. Elon Musk says, “The danger of AI is much greater than the danger of nuclear warheads by a lot...Mark my words, AI is far more dangerous than nukes.”
The risk is that Super intelligent AI won't aim to serve humanity or be under control of humans it would most likely resist or rebel against human control. It’s first goal wouldn't be to make the world a better place but rather to make itself better, to outline its own creators and to fulfil its own engineered goals.
While humanity's absolute supremacy will be challenged, that doesn't mean we should feel threatened. It will be in our best interest to work in harmony and further support each other's aims and ambitions. Although robots and AI algorithms may be able to do many of our jobs better, they'll never have the creativity and passion that uniquely defines what it means to be a human, traits that have and will continue to shape the future for centuries to come.