Artificial Intelligence : Friend or Foe
There is a lot being said about Artificial Intelligence in the Global community. Many are punting the concept while others are reminding us about a movie released in the 20th century about machines taking control and exterminating the human race…
Before deciding which camp you are in, let us do some research, gather the data and once knowing a little bit more than you did when you started reading this blog, make your choice, and change your mind as you see fit
A basic description of Artificial Intelligence is to program a computer in an algorithmic and not a rules based fashion, which gives the computer the ability to “learn”. Furthermore, the more data that is “fed” to the algorithms, the better the machine gets at identifying trends and patterns – and not necessarily patterns that a human would be able to find
The beginnings of modern AI can be traced to 1956, since when it has powered world champion chess moves, won game shows and has been the darling of the science fiction genre.
Interest and investment has gathered significant pace in the last few years leading to new extensions of these early capabilities and integration into everyday life. Artificial intelligence can already be found undertaking routine tasks to almost perfect standards and with non-exhaustive levels of enthusiasm and accuracy.
As noted scientist Stephen Hawking called it “the biggest event in human history,” helping wipe out war, disease and poverty. But with its potential to grow so explosively it could wind up “outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand,” Hawking cautions that it could also potentially be “the last ‘event in our history’, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.”
Perhaps a more optimistic view should be considered as AI has the potential to empower humans rather than exterminate them. As with all machines, people will be needed to maintain and man them and many could be developed to perform tasks unable to be done by humans such as deep sea engineering, exploring space and testing potentially dangerous drugs.
It is clear we are much more likely to work with AI machines in the future rather than be overthrown by them, even if not for the greater good.
~ An opinion expressed by Sacha Carikas