Have you ever wondered what if the Robot movie becomes a reality? Or just like the move I, Robot ,humans won’t be able to deal with their power?
There has been a lot of debate in the past one year about the pros and cons of Artificial Intelligence. Some argue that it’s going to take the technological advancements to new heights, while few others argue that it will result in extensive job losses because of automation. Media has not backed away from promoting all the news related to AI as a doomsday story when robots will rule the world.
However, this argument has very little meat to it.
Human body and mind are still beyond our cognisance as there’s much more to it then we know. The human body is wired and functions in such efficient ways that we still haven’t been able to understand some inexplicable phenomenon. Talking about the human mind, it is the most beautiful and most profound mystery. The potential of a human mind is an untapped ocean and the more in-depth we try to dig the more astonishing discoveries shall be made.
Though AI will aid businesses to deal with data and to handle repetitive tasks, it is far from taking over humankind.
Let’s look at some of the factors that will substantiate this argument.
The Job take-over’ argument
To start with, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of IT jobs since internet revolution began. This in itself explains that new technology will always generate jobs and not eliminate. There might be a little friction with the disruption, and some people might lose jobs by not being able to stay relevant to the industry changes, but the argument about massive layoffs and no new job opportunities because of technologies like AI is entirely shallow.
Automation might take away some jobs, but it is going to generate much more jobs than it will take away. For example, the demand for AI specialist, chatbot designers, and content writers for chatbots and even training personnel for AI has already started gearing up.
The Data Game
Artificial intelligence is high-level computer programs that facilitate machine learning and replicating human behaviour to complete repetitive tasks, for example, consider robotics employed in factories these days. In programming, one has to feed the input data to get the output, for instance, consider Big Data. The information needed to feed into the system needs to be monitored by humans as AI works on the mathematics of association not, causation. One needs to be careful with the data we provide because AI will start running analysis for any set of data that it will be provided with, without establishing the underlying reason which can only be done by human mind.
For example, a program deployed to analysis sales of products purchased by women and the underlying factors will correlate all the factors in the data. Mistakenly, if you feed the electoral results in this set, the AI program will end up comparing the sale of women products with that of election results.
Another essential factor that substantiates the data dispute is about defining deviation in the result. AI will keep on running the analysis until it gets the perfect equation. Getting the ideal association and a perfect equation is impossible because there will always be some fluctuation points. We need to define the appropriate deviation levels for the AI program while calculating results.
Creativity and ability to invent and discover new things
AI and Robotics can’t invent art or write poetry. Our creativity has been the reason for our unprecedented evolution since ages. We have developed an ability to communicate with each other because of our creativity and curiosity. Our creativity and curiosity is something that Robots will never have because creativity is the result of our perception of the surroundings by our five senses. We gauge the experience in its entirety with the help of our five senses. This creativity will always stay relevant even regarding business. For example, story-telling is an art that is acknowledged and emphasized on, in the corporate world to build relationships.
Intuition and Right brain wiring
Our intuitive abilities are something that can never be incorporated into AI/Robots. Though they might have an advanced algorithm to predict some future happenings such as stock market prices, it’ll never be as strong as human’s intuitive abilities.
Thousands of years of evolutionary memory have been stored in our right brain. We are wired with strong survival instincts because of our evolutionary history which is still a part of us. We carry the knowledge from all forms of life which we have evolved from. We can sense an impending danger which a Robot might not be ever able to do.
On the end note, robotics and AI will always be an aid to humankind and should be used as an assistant to humans rather than being perceived as a threat to humans. It will still need human intelligence for further growth and advancement. The only thing that we must be scared of is about harnessing the power of AI, i.e., it must be used for the benefit of humankind and not destruction.
