If you ask any computer scientist what the fastest growing field of the industry is, chances are they’ll reply with artificial intelligence.
That’s an expected response because of how rapidly growing and influential this branch of computer science has become. It is part of our lives in ways unimaginable, and most of us carry on with our lives, unaware of how much we rely on it.
AI Is the Steam Engine of Our Time and Age
Applications of artificial intelligence are in every field imaginable. That is because of the need for automation, which goes back to the core philosophy of how machines work: to help us do tasks with ease.
In this day and age, we’re surrounded by automated devices that don’t even require people running them, and while the idea of computer-controlled services is a frightening one for some, it’s already part of our daily lives, without us realizing.
Facebook and Google
Facebook, which everyone uses on an hourly basis, uses deep AI learning mechanisms for catering its content for the user. Google’s AI manipulates search results depending upon the user’s region, their habits and their history, to give them the best results. This is all made possible by artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms.
Tesla
Tech companies are spending millions in the development of AIs to maximize their sales and for technological advancements. Tesla, being one of the biggest companies in the automobile and technology industry, has been developing advanced AIs for automated driving, in which the vehicle, based on various external and internal factors, navigates without any involvement of the driver.
NVIDIA
NVIDIA, which is primarily a graphics card manufacturer, has been working very closely with AI as well in various subfields, from restoring images to automated vehicles that learn various aspects of human drivers in real time by observing how we work.
McKinsey Global Institute has commented on the significance of this field by stating that AIs could increase annual gross domestic product growth by about 1.2% through at least 2030, which equates to around $13 trillion of new economic activity. This figure is massive enough to justify the comparison with the steam engine that revolutionized the industrial market.
AI Is Not Just for Research
The uses of AI for industrial growth aren’t only limited to research, as modern companies have employed the use of financially competent AIs that can provide feedback when it comes to hiring individuals, predicting growth, expecting failures, and understanding the behavior of the stock market and strategizing according to it. Analysts have predicted that around 70% of companies will adopt some form of artificial intelligence by 2030.
Many countries are racing to invest heavily in this field, and on the top are the United States and China. China even has a five-year plan that runs through 2020, and their goal is to become a leader in the field of technology. If China does become successful in becoming the leader in AI, they’ll likely capture 20% more benefits in economic growth.
The Rise of AI and Its Impact on Employment
The number one threat anyone working in the industry has when questioned about the rapid growth in AI is how it affects employment for people because of machines taking over jobs that can be done exponentially faster than humans.
The answer is quite tricky, and it’s disheartening, to say the least, but the outcome of automation isn’t always beneficial for the working class. According to a study, it is predicted that around 2030, around 400 and 800 million jobs will be displaced, and almost 375 million people will have to switch their careers entirely, to facilitate the growth of AI and its automation.
While this might be a frightening reality, with every technological rise, more jobs are always created, and history has been proof of that. When the industrial revolution happened, the agricultural sector suffered, but the job requirement generally became far more expansive. Even though AI is expected to create jobs with advanced requirements, the prospects and benefits will definitely create far more lucrative living conditions for consumers and employees alike.
We still have time to see how the AI revolution in the job sector will rise and what sort of jobs it will create. For sure, it will take away the mundane jobs that most computers can be done more efficiently.
The need for AI and Automation
At its core, AIs are designed and implemented to facilitate much of what we do, and the past few years have been proof of the capabilities of this field. The need for AI isn’t solely based on automation, however, but to predict and solve many problems relating to our social, economic, and medical lives.
Deep machine learning and neural networks are on the rise and aim to replicate the behavior of the brain. This gives us a new way of deducing things, through the use of largely connected data. Machine learning especially deals with a system based on previous data to make very accurate assumptions and predictions. This has helped us conserve time and money by focusing on tasks with a higher success rate.
The medical sector has seen various advancements including prediction of a disease’s presence and chance of occurrences. This is all possible by the deductive ability and the power of computers to process data at such an exponential rate, that we humans can’t even conceptualize. Cancer can be predicted by AI-powered machines based on the symptoms of patients, further strengthening the fight against these hideous diseases. This has resulted in pharmaceutical companies to heavily invest in this growing field as well.
Aside from obvious usages, AIs have also been used in more creative fields like arts and music. Free websites allow content creators to use AI-generated music for their content. Various AI scripts are used to restore vintage images and even create art pieces through deep learning.
In this day and age, when our smartphones are capable of calling people and able to carry out entire conversations, it’s clear that our reliance on automation and AIs is only going to grow. The market has recognized this and is heavily investing in it to create more jobs, expand exponentially, and earn a profit.
