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What is Artificial Intelligence and can it really take over the world? : An article by Sparsha Saha

 

“AI is likely to be either the best or worst thing to happen to humanity.” - Stephen Hawking

 

Imagine this, one day you open up your mobile phone and features like “swipe to type” or “keyboard suggestions” suddenly stop working.

Not a big deal eh?

Alright, now imagine this, an in-use ventilator suddenly stops working normally and starts taking wrong decisions?

Both of these scenarios are somewhat related yet very different.

 

The former shows the use of Artificial Intelligence to make life easier for us in small ways and the latter shows how machines are used in taking complex, potentially life changing decisions.

 

Since time immemorial, humans have been using small tools or machines to enable their lives in different ways. Take an example of a bullock cart or a steam engine. We have never been intimidated by machines before right? So what’s so different about the twenty-first century? Why do we see articles all around about AI taking over the world?

Well you see, there’s a key difference between an AI powered robot and a simple machine like a  steam engine. To understand the difference let’s think about what makes us different from a machine.

Well we are beings who can perceive the environment around them with the help of stimuli and learn from them.

A child would fall a couple of times from his bed before learning that it should not wander towards the edge of the bed but a small toy car wouldn’t know because it can't “think”.


This is exactly the difference between an AI and a dumb machine. An AI can learn from its surroundings and change its decision making process accordingly.

Take an example of the auto-correct on your phone. It will fail to recognize a colloquial word initially but if you use that word enough times, it will learn to recognize and use it in its suggestions.

 

We are heading towards a world where we will be more and more dependent on AI for almost everything we do. I mean right now the Google Assistant on your Android phone can make or receive calls and schedule appointments for you on their own.

The smartwatch on your hand can track your movements, your heart rate and can even work like an ECG. It can also inform your family if it detects any erratic patterns in your heart beat which can potentially save your life.

These are a few out of millions of examples which show that AI has become an integral part of our lives already.

It seems like AI is some kind of blessing right? So why are experts saying that we should be extremely careful with AI?

 

Well it has to do with Darwin’s theory of Survival of the Fittest.

The rapid rate at which AI is becoming better every day raises questions like “How far are we from the day when AI becomes more capable than humans will ever be?” and “What happens to humans when that day comes?”

We have already seen it in Sci-fi movies like “Age of Ultron” and the infamous “Terminator” franchise where AI becomes so powerful that they threaten the very existence of their creators, i.e humans.

 

Though this sounds like a plausible fate of humanity but things are really not that simple.

Though we have made a lot of progress in the field of Artificial Intelligence in the past decade but currently, AI is nowhere close to even what a dog can do, let alone a human being.

 

Most Artificial Intelligence models are task specific. For example, an AI enabled washing machine can only wash clothes and can’t drive your car. But complex organisms like dogs, humans can do loads of different activities at the same time.

What researchers are looking for right now is a way to create “Artificial General Intelligence” which is basically an AI which can learn and perform a variety of tasks close to what a human is able to do but right now there are more questions than there are answers.

 

So does that mean we have no reason to be afraid?

 

Well, that depends on us. The process by which AI learns is designed and framed by us. When we finally get to the era of “Artificial General Intelligence”, we must make sure that the goal of the machines align with that of the humans and we must make every possible effort to teach AI complex human emotions like morality, compassion etc to make sure that humans and machines can co-exist peacefully.

 

Till then we should stop fearing AI at its current state and embrace it as it is our best bet at saving the environment and taking the next big step in the evolution of the human race.



Bio:-

I am Sparsha Saha, a former student and now alumni of Funlish.

I work as a Software Engineer at Microsoft after having completed my BTech in Computer Science and Engineering in 2019.

I love writing code, listening to music and reading books.

I love teaching young students who are interested in programming.

I am always up for a chat. Ping me on instagram.


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