Siri Today, Sci-Fi Tomorrow

Last week at Holberton School, we got the opportunity to learn about artificial intelligence and deep learning from two great minds in the field, Gregory Renard and Louis Monier. After an incredible 8 hours of playing, listening, and discussion, I came away with a sense of hope and excitement for the future. I can now officially say I’m on the AI bandwagon. But let me put that in perspective.

Up until our lesson, all I knew about AI was from movies like (you guessed it) AI, Bicentennial Man, and I, Robot. I was actually reasonably sure that I, Robot was a warning sent to us from the future of what would happen if we dared to build truly intelligent robots (and obviously Will Smith is from the future, too).

He hasn’t aged in 20 years. It’s suspicious.

But with this fear of AI that I had (ready? it’s about to get real), I was actually giving in to what I consider one of humanity’s greatest flaws: fear of the unknown. Everyone read Hamlet in high school, right? It was in the famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy that he said, “[The dread of the unknown] makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others we know not of.” Most of us have this natural tendency to resist change because we’re unsure of what could happen. At least, I know I do. We are creatures of habit, after all.

And this fear has been a part of the human condition for a long time, since way before Shakespeare. I’d bet it was probably even evolutionarily beneficial at some point in our history (biology major over here!), but… there’s a rub. It’s this kind of thinking that stymies innovation, that chokes progress, and that ultimately makes us all complacent. Which is not a good thing.

A quick Google Images search for ‘complacency’ is actually kinda scary.

Now, I’m not saying to throw caution to the wind and start handing out smart houses and personal AI assistants to everyone. First of all, we’re not there yet. Siri and Baidu’s app FaceYou are some pretty incredible feats, but there’s still a long way to go before we meet some of the expectations Hollywood has set for AI. Second, there are lots of implications and potential consequences to consider. But don’t worry, they are being considered. In great depth. Some huge names, both in and out of the industry, including Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Noam Chomsky, have signed an open letter on artificial intelligence. This letter basically states that research into AI is important and needs to be done, but research on how to prevent its misuse (which we all know inevitably leads to the Matrix) is just as important. To that end, many of those same people went on to sign another open letter detailing the importance of keeping AI out of weaponry. So don’t think engineers and programmers are just turning a blind eye to the issues in the name of growth or wealth. We know there are dangers, and acknowledging and studying those “potential pitfalls” is the best way to prepare for them.

What I am saying is that we should consider the potential. AI’s potential is really almost limitless. Do you want to know what your pet is thinking? What about your plants? How about having your taxes done without you ever even thinking about them (and for free)? There are so many applications for AI in our daily lives, that it’s sometimes hard to distance yourself enough to see them. Ask yourself, what are things I have to do but hate doing? I, for example, hate shuffling through 4 email addresses every day, doing laundry, and cooking. Let’s automate all those kinds of things. And once we free ourselves from the mundane, then an even better question can be asked: what are things you want to do but never have the time for? Because, to me, that might be AI’s greatest benefit — more time to do things we enjoy, more time with family and friends, more time to create.

And there’s so much more than just eliminating busy work. Let’s give autonomy to the disabled and elderly, individual school curriculums tailored to every child, and the eradicate homelessness and poverty (it’s in the open letter!). We’re talking about improving everyone’s lives in some way. Big stuff. And yes, for some of my examples, a lot of things are going to have to change. And it’ll probably be pretty hard. And things might get a little crazy. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth doing, right? Remember, change is not an inherently bad thing. If we have the capability to change things for the better, don’t we have a responsibility to do it? I think so. Either way, I believe there are big things in store for us. The future is happening.