Artificial Intelligence: Boon Or Doom?
Artificial Intelligence (AI), is this term supposed to make us feel good about our future, or should we be worried? Let’s get into the depths of it and find out for ourselves.
Let’s start with talking about how often we hear the term AI in our day to day lives. Smartphone manufacturers have made it a habit to boast about how their smartphones are so smart and come equipped with AI and all the things AI can do for us. As fascinating as this is, AI is meant to be much more than just suggesting what type of picture we are clicking on our smartphone and tweaking the settings to produce the best result. To read about how AI and machine learning have been implemented in our smartphones to produce better-looking images, you can read our blog talking about computational photography.
AI is integrated into a bunch of things we use or come across in our day to day lives, for example, social media feeds, music and media streaming services, online ads network, navigation, banking and finance, smart home devices, security and surveillance. A whole lot of it, basically. You must have heard a lot of talks surrounding how AI is harmful to our future and one day it will take over all of humanity and make us their slaves. While this seems to be very convincing, Mr Akash Ambani, Reliance Jio’s Chief of Strategy stated to Times of India that “Many say that machine learning is evil as it will replace humans. In my opinion, machines can prove highly beneficial. We will not be seeking to replace human effort, but to amplify it with intelligence”. “This meant that we could help people who are illiterate, learning challenged or not conversant with English. In a classroom setting, everyone faces the same experience, but we learn differently, we learn at different paces. With AI, it is now possible to pace the delivery of learning, to adapt it, so that it is best suited to the individual learning pace. It is like having a personal coach,” he added.
Now, on a completely contradictory note, Mr Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, feels very differently. He issued a warning regarding the emerging technology, saying that the development of superhuman intelligence could potentially result in the creation of a rogue, ‘immortal dictator’ that could take over the world. According to him, “The least scary future I can think of is one where we have at least democratized AI because if one company or small group of people manages to develop godlike digital superintelligence, they could take over the world”. He also adds, “If AI has a goal and humanity just happens to be in the way, it will destroy humanity as a matter of course without even thinking about it. No hard feelings. It’s just like if we’re building a road and an anthill just happens to be in the way, we don’t hate ants, we’re just building a road, and so, goodbye anthill”. On a lighter note, he also had a funny thought about how our whole civilization could just a big simulation? If you wish to know more on the same, then you can check out this video of his interview from Code Conference 2016.
All these are very convincing arguments, and we’ve got more of it. Our Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes that India has the potential to emerge as an AI-powerhouse in the future. At an inauguration ceremony for an independent nonprofit research institute, Wadhwani Institute of Artificial Intelligence in Mumbai, Modi gave an extensive speech about AI and its role in shaping India’s future. Here’s an extract from his speech:
“With the arrival of AI, bots and robots, there is no doubt that our productivity will go further up. The intersection of AI, big data and human understanding, is the solution to many problems we are facing. We need to make AI in India and make AI work for India. Our government is of the firm belief that we can use AI to eradicate poverty and disease. In being so, we can bring prosperity to our people and the underprivileged sections.”
He also outlined his thoughts on the fear of AI and robots replacing humans in the workforce, and pointed out that such doubts are always raised when new technology is first introduced. Everyone seems to have their own opinion regarding AI, we want to know what you think about AI and how it can impact our future. You can hit us up in the comment section below and let us know your thoughts on this arguably innocuous technology.
