What makes human race superior on this earth? What makes us lead and pet all other species? It’s a single word answer, Intelligence. It is our ability to think, to anticipate and to design things that made us evolve to this phase and be supreme in this world, helped us hold control. What if, there is another intelligence that is inferior to the human brain? What if it starts doing things that we can’t control? I don’t know how it is going to feel, but one thing is for sure, the thought itself is scary.
Yes, I am talking about Artificial Intelligence referred as AI everywhere in general. As the name itself suggests it is the intelligence developed artificially by us humans to help us do things a lot faster and smarter. But, the question here is, is it limited to helping us or is it going ahead to a point where it leads us?
At present, AI can be headed towards two ways,
To complement the tasks we do for better results and progress of humanityTo automate things and end up in a position where we won’t have any control or worse, don’t know what’s happening
Let us discuss these two possibilities in brief.
Complement the tasks, betterment of humanity:
AI has been the buzzword for past two years or so. We have been hearing and reading about it everywhere as where it is used, how it is used and all. Taking from toys and games to aviation, it is all over. Comprehensive list of applications can be found here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applications_of_artificial_intelligence. One of the admirable application which amused me is in the field of agriculture. Recently, Microsoft has partnered with ICRISAT (International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics, a non-profit organization), to understand the soil conditions, forecast the weather and guide the farmers on when to sow the seeds, when to add fertilizers and how to yield more crop in less land. This is a phenomenal application. During growing concerns of farmers, this not just alleviates their problems but makes the economy self-sufficient in terms of basic necessities and helps the human race survive a bit longer. Read more about this application here, http://mybs.in/2UbA5b2.
Automate and lose control:
Now, this is interesting. Let me start with a very relevant example which is also being heard more frequently these days. Let’s talk about driver-less cars. Everyone is interested in developing one, from tech companies like Google and Apple to automobile giants like Toyota and Ford because, for both kinds of organizations, it is just extension of their capabilities. Tech companies have to learn about automobiles and automobiles about technology which is not a big deal these days considering the talent pool we have around the world. The portrayed advantages of the driver-less car are tangible like reduced pollution, reduced fuel consumption, fewer road accidents, etc. But, as the artificial intelligence is also given self- learning capabilities and by now have gained significant understanding of human behavior (thanks to Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, Apple’s Siri ), what if the car crashes willingly just because it got upset with its owner? The loss will be intangible. I understand I am being too cynical by taking a rudimentary example, but just try to apply similar kind of thought to sophisticated applications like drones and security. Isn’t it thought provoking?
Every technology till now has survived in the mainstream due to its ability in making the human lives smooth and facile. This is for the first time in history where we are not sure where it’s going to head. Let’s hope for the better and wish human race thrive.
Creating something more intelligent that you might be the biggest darwinian error