AI and Its Future

Artificial Intelligence.

Two words that were, even a decade ago, popular mostly in the pages of science fiction. Today, it is very much a reality and increasingly becoming a part of our normal, everyday life.

For long, humanity has been imagining a future that was so technologically advanced that cars drove themselves and machines spoke to humans. The rapid emergence of AI technology in the last few years is an indication that THIS is that future. The advent of AI is the Event Horizon for that future.

Thanks to the popularity of Tesla, driverless cars are not novel nor fantastic. And most of us, the citizens of the big tech era, are talking to a Siri or an Alexa or a Cortana every day — all of us a Tony Stark with our own Jarvis.

However, most of the current AI technology is just Weak AI.

What is Weak AI?

Though it is called artificial intelligence, the technology is not yet intelligent in the true sense of the word. AlphaGo may have beaten the Grandmaster Lee, and Hanon’s Sophia may jokingly threaten to destroy humanity, but they are essentially useless in pretty much everything outside of what they were programmed for.

The mainstream AI tech that we have now, is only a little better than the automated production line of the Second Industrial Revolution. In fact, we can say that it is a glorified automation system, programmed to learn and do, and learn to do specific tasks, or a range of related tasks if you may, basically functioning as only a tool.

This, Weak AI, is definitely not the intelligence that we are feverishly waiting for as well as dreading. On the other hand, Strong AI, the intelligence that could potentially surpass human intelligence, is still a work in progress. Experts are of varied opinion on when it will happen — in the next twenty years or a century later. It is safe to say, though, that since AI is now a reality much sooner than expected even five years ago, the technology will progress at warp speed.

AI technology available now has already permeated into all aspects of life — from transportation, to data analytics, and to medicine.

Big data is growing at a very high speed. Practically every industry is dependant on data. AI comes in handy in analyzing the high volumes of data and makes complex decisions just as new data is generated. Even as Data Analysts seem to be the newest, most important workforce they are increasingly dependent on AI. This leads to the possibility of AI taking over data analysis jobs.

Every industry that is currently employing humans will eventually switch to automate with AI. Softwares are increasingly becoming smarter than we are. Weak AI, with its narrow tasks, is already taking over jobs in many industries. As it is perfected, we will see most of the jobs become unavailable for humans.

This disruption will be brief, just as during the Second Industrial Revolution, workers laid off to make way for automated mass production will be employed in new jobs generated because of the advent of AI. Machine learning is already one of the most sought-after courses now.

A new kind of social system will emerge, where Universal Basic Income will be provided to everyone because jobs are taken over by smart machines and algorithms. Work will be done for pleasure not to earn a living.

Businesses, Scientific Organisations, and just about everyone, other than those unemployed by AI, will greatly benefit from the efficiency, cost-effectiveness and automatic updating of the software. Every aspect of running a business, from production to marketing to CRM to accounting will all be handled by AI. This will highly benefit not just the business owner but everyone who transacts with that business.

We are already living in a world where our gadgets listen in on our conversations and use that data to show us information that the software deems relevant to us. Our vehicles are gradually going toward automated driving. E-commerce sites are recommending products to us based on what we search for on the internet. Google knows where we are and where we have been and suggests what to do at any given time.

Websites suggest articles based on what we have read before; they correct spelling and grammar for our write-ups. In fact, this article was spell checked by Grammarly that suggests edits based on what English we are using.

Schools and hospitals, even legal systems in some countries are increasingly dependent on algorithms the make complex decisions, and aid in their everyday work.

The AI will not pass the Turing test anytime soon, nor do we need to break our heads over the ethics or efficiency of Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, yet. But, it has already transformed aspects of human life significantly and the future seems to be all about AI. Which is why it is about time that we start harnessing AI.

This content was written as a sample for a prospective client and posted here as part of my portfolio.