Should we really be afraid of artificial intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is perhaps the biggest change to modern life as we know it and its influence will continue to grow and advance in the future. Over the past few years, AI has grown rapidly and people have been left wondering what will happen to the world in twenty or thirty years time. Will we be enslaved by automated overlords or will we live happily side by side? In this article, we will be discussing the impact on our lives of AI.
First, it is important to explain and identify what the different concepts related to AI are:
Artificial intelligence: Machines performing tasks which usually require human intelligence.
Machine learning: Study of algorithms which computer systems use to perform tasks without being given specific instructions
Deep learning: A subfield of machine learning, but recognises sets of data like the human brain and uses the data to perform tasks on it’s own
Each of these techniques have surprised us by their accuracy of performing these tasks. There is no doubt that machines are able to do tasks better than humans, in terms of accuracy and time consumption. However, because of the capabilities of AI, the prospect of people losing their jobs on a mass scale is very much a reality.
Jobs which are more mechanical in nature, and follow a fixed pattern is easier for a machine to adopt and could be performed by AI resulting in unemployment. Such advancements could be beneficial for population intensive countries like India and China, as it could bring additional benefits to masses, however, it would hit employment figures hard and could cause drive communities into deeper poverty. Though AI would be a huge advancement to the world and bring new discoveries, it still may cause some problems for us.
Some people also think that AI will invade their privacy. Cameras are watching you everywhere and facial recognition has made it very easy to identify you. Social media also has algorithms which can be effective in target marketing. They can see who we are and what we like and access our personal data to find a way to convince us to buy their product. Since it is possible to track every move online and in the real world AI can reveal your personal information and privacy which makes it a very powerful tool. If this falls into the wrong hands we are in real trouble.
Opinion is divided. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX says that AI was more dangerous than nuclear weapons and there needed to be a regulatory body overseeing the development of super intelligence. However, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and Harvard’s professor Steven Pinker, strongly disagree with that statement and champion the benefits it could clearly bring.
First, it is important to explain and identify what the different concepts related to AI are:
Artificial intelligence: Machines performing tasks which usually require human intelligence.
Machine learning: Study of algorithms which computer systems use to perform tasks without being given specific instructions
Deep learning: A subfield of machine learning, but recognises sets of data like the human brain and uses the data to perform tasks on it’s own
Each of these techniques have surprised us by their accuracy of performing these tasks. There is no doubt that machines are able to do tasks better than humans, in terms of accuracy and time consumption. However, because of the capabilities of AI, the prospect of people losing their jobs on a mass scale is very much a reality.
Jobs which are more mechanical in nature, and follow a fixed pattern is easier for a machine to adopt and could be performed by AI resulting in unemployment. Such advancements could be beneficial for population intensive countries like India and China, as it could bring additional benefits to masses, however, it would hit employment figures hard and could cause drive communities into deeper poverty. Though AI would be a huge advancement to the world and bring new discoveries, it still may cause some problems for us.
Some people also think that AI will invade their privacy. Cameras are watching you everywhere and facial recognition has made it very easy to identify you. Social media also has algorithms which can be effective in target marketing. They can see who we are and what we like and access our personal data to find a way to convince us to buy their product. Since it is possible to track every move online and in the real world AI can reveal your personal information and privacy which makes it a very powerful tool. If this falls into the wrong hands we are in real trouble.
Opinion is divided. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX says that AI was more dangerous than nuclear weapons and there needed to be a regulatory body overseeing the development of super intelligence. However, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and Harvard’s professor Steven Pinker, strongly disagree with that statement and champion the benefits it could clearly bring.