AI vs. Human or AI with Human
Artificial intelligence vs human intelligence is an ever evolving debate with advocates backing the power of one form over the other and believing eventually one will replace the other. I will try and put forth my opinion on the same debate and explain why AI is a piece of code of a higher order and nothing else, and why we should move beyond the AI vs. Humans Conundrum and look at AI + Humans instead of AI Vs Humans.
AI makes use of data collected and stored in its memory to take insights from a range of fields and actions to generate contextual awareness which gives it the ability to understand and react to a given situation in order to produce optimum response. AI has undoubtedly evolved greatly over the past few years and is going see more grand breaking changes in its design, functions and importance in the coming future. AI has already become the workhorse for several industries and business functions like banking, cybersecurity, marketing, sales, customer engagement, etc. mainly for the purposes of automation of regular and mundane tasks.
It doesn’t stop here, there is a lot more ongoing research to leverage AI with Machine Learning and natural language processing to make processes more in line with the needs of tomorrow. But will it make it worthy enough of a human takeover? is the big question I’m trying to answer here.
Will AI replace human intelligence?
With the dwarfing investment flowing into R&D of AI solutions in various fields, it is widely feared that AI will take over the jobs leaving millions unemployed and at some point, even take over the world.
It is without a doubt justified to some extent to have such fears since there are a number of jobs lost especially those involving mundane and regular tasks and judgements. But looking at the bigger picture, AI simply cannot replace human intelligence. Why?
For mainly three reasons.
First and foremost, human intelligence isn’t just a farrago of information but a product of millions of years of learning and fine-tuning. Our comprehension skills and abilities have come so far that we can multi-task, respond to new circumstances and changes effectively, adapt ourselves to a dynamically changing environment, handle the most complicated tasks, process even vaguest of commands, be flexible and so much more. An AI assisted machine cannot go beyond reacting to situations leave aside responding with empathy.
Secondly, human intelligence factors in inter-personal and intra-personal intelligence which helps us in processing emotions, observations, judgments, creatively come up with solutions to our problems, etc. These are beyond the realm of algorithms but are human prerogatives and cannot be mimicked by machines. And this is why robots will never replace us — for human empathy cannot be recreated.
And last but most importantly, AI is but a replicated version of the human brain, so it will require several times more R&D, instructions and investments to be able to come close to mimicking the human intelligence. At best, AI can be a powerful tool for us humans to use and improve the way our world functions.
It is an undeniable fact that AI is a powerful tool but it isn’t powerful enough to replace humans and create a new world order. Hence it is in the interests of the human civilisation to leverage this fast evolving technology for the best of mankind to improve personal and professional lives and engage in better decision-making, improve the overall efficiency of our work and so on.
To put it very simply, an advancing technology like AI will inherently lead to advancements in human productivity, free humans from the hold of predictable work. History shows that increased productivity correlates with economic and job growth by opening new and unforeseen areas of business and thought.
What is the need of the hour is to prepare for the next phase of human civilisation- a hybrid workforce made of both human and machine talent, leading to new but welcome employability frameworks.
No piece of new technology that eventually brought about a revolution has been heralded with out apprehension. But as history dictates change is the only constant. Inevitable cannot be dealt with; rather we should work towards trying to embrace it and eventually control it. After all the right strategies of today will help shape the future civilisations.
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