The Truth about AI: Should We Be Scared?
Have you been wondering about the recent news about ChatGPT? What about Artificial Intelligence (AI)? As the popularity of ChatGPT increases and newer versions of AI generative models are produced, you may have some questions regarding this new technology. AI is the simulation of human intelligence in machinery. Through these machines, AI is trained to generate tasks such as summaries, questions, art, and research.
How does AI work?
AI uses large amounts of data with certain algorithms. These are a series of instructions that grant the software to learn from the patterns and features of the set of data. AI uses subfields that imitate the way a brain works.
Weak AI vs. Strong AI
Weak AI or Narrow AI is AI that is specifically trained to complete certain tasks. Most applications like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, IBM watson™, and all self-driving vehicles use Weak AI.
Strong AI includes both Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI). Strong AI is a conceptual form of AI where a machine would have intelligence equivalent to humans. It would be aware of its own existence and ability to solve problems, learn, and plan for the future. ASI would be able to exceed the intelligence of a human brain.
What are the 4 types of Artificial Intelligence?
- Reactive AI uses algorithms to produce the same output when given an input, it cannot learn or adapt in different situations. For example, Deep Blue is the IBM chess program. It is able to figure out different pieces on the chess board, but it is not able to make decisions based on past experiences.
- Limited Memory AI changes itself based on past experiences or improves itself through new observations. Self-driving cars use some of these decision-making functions.
- Theory-of-mind AI is a theoretical term. It would be a very advanced form of AI, where it could fully adapt itself to understand human emotions.
- Self-aware AI is when AI becomes aware of its own existence. This AI is not real yet.
What could AI mean for our future?
AI could mean a major change in the way industries are run. For companies wanting to cut down on wage expenses, AI provides them with ways to minimize the cost of wages to their employees. In transportation, right now only self-driving cars and AI Travel Planners are used, eventually humans could see a drastic change in the quality of transportation with AI as AI becomes more advanced. In addition, AI has been used in manufacturing for many years. Through working alongside humans, robotic arms and other manufacturing robots complete repeated stacking and assembly tasks, predicted analysis sensors help items move around the factory easily. One of the benefits of AI is that it can be used to help identify diseases very quickly and accurately, accelerate and broadcast drug discovery, and look after patients through virtual AI nurse assistants, contributing to the advancement of medicine. In the future, AI will change the way people learn. AI will provide teachers with ways to check for plagiarism, the digitization of textbooks, and its ability to recognize how students are learning. AI will have the ability to see if students are bored or engaged with lessons, and it will be able to cater to each student’s needs. But, as AI-generating tools like ChatGPT enter the world, it only questions what AI could mean for the future of true writing and the rest of the media. Lastly, having AI in customer service helps to provide the industry with tools that deliver direct insights to both the customer and the company. AI customer service comes in the form of phone calls and chat boxes as virtual assistants.
How will AI change the ability to get jobs?
AI expert Kai-Lee speaks about AI’s ability to replace jobs in the workforce, “The bottom 90 percent, especially the bottom 50 percent of the world in terms of income or education, will be badly hurt with job displacement… The simple question to ask is, ‘How routine is a job?’ And that is how likely [it is] a job will be replaced by AI, because AI can, within the routine task, learn to optimize itself. And the more quantitative, the more objective the job is—separating things into bins, washing dishes, picking fruits and answering customer service calls—those are very much scripted tasks that are repetitive and routine in nature. In a matter of five, 10 or 15 years, they will be displaced by AI.”
Companies are wanting to reduce the number of jobs, President of Infosys, Mohit Joshi, speaks out to the New York Times saying, “People are looking to achieve very big numbers. Earlier they had incremental, five to 10 percent goals in reducing their workforce. Now they’re saying, ‘Why can’t we do it with one percent of the people we have?’”
Lee believes that AI does not have any creativity and could never experience love or empathy. AI is only a tool that heightens human creativity. The solution: The biggest worry involves jobs that use repeated tasks, so people should learn new skills that are necessary for applying to other jobs.
We have to accept that AI is the future. What does it bring? We can never be sure.
These are just some predictions of what AI will mean for us. As AI begins to evolve, it will be able to shape the future of generations in both positive and negative ways.
Sources
https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence
https://www.ibm.com/topics/artificial-intelligence
https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/artificial-intelligence-future