Written in May 2021, well before today’s generative AI tools arrived.
Humanity has always been driven by intelligence. That is what has helped us stay on top of the food chain. The question humans have always pondered is whether there is intelligent life like us out there in the universe. We have always looked to the stars to find an answer. But for some, the answer was always within: rather than looking for intelligent life elsewhere, some started building their own. So began Artificial Intelligence (AI).
What is AI?
In layman’s terms, Artificial Intelligence is the ability of a computer program or a machine to understand its environment and learn. AI uses big data and predictive analytics to provide inputs for an algorithm’s decision-making. If a process needs decisions based on data, AI is a suitable candidate.
We need AI for the same reason we need computers, trains, planes and automobiles: to get things done more easily, faster and more reliably, and to save time and money.
Entertainment and media today are run by AI in the form of algorithms. We voluntarily put so much data into the system that it has become easy for AI to learn human behaviour and help big data companies target and micro-target potential customers. According to a study in the UK, Facebook’s algorithms can tell when someone is falling out of love with their partner much earlier than it happens — a prediction that is almost impossible for humans to make. It is unsettling how much AI can learn about human patterns and behaviour, even more than people can.
With the convergence of megatrends — massive data, lightning-fast processing and renewed competitive fever among America’s biggest technology companies (Microsoft, Alphabet, Facebook, IBM and Amazon) — AI is poised to cause disruption on a scale that could surpass the Internet itself.
Pick any of the top websites or applications in the world and each one is run by some form of AI. Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tinder, Spotify and Reddit are all constantly improving and changing with the feedback provided by their algorithms.
Only half a decade ago, a content creator or musician who wanted a copyright claim on YouTube had to file it manually to get the content taken down or receive the revenue from it. Today YouTube’s algorithms are so powerful that they can detect copyright matches even before a video is published. The uploader can either trim the video or let the revenue go to the rights holder, and both are automated.
AI, an existential threat?
Like every technology, AI has its pros and cons, and many tech entrepreneurs and scientists hold opinions of varying degrees on the subject.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has said: “I think we should be careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that.”
The world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking said: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate.”
Microsoft founder Bill Gates put it this way: “First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern.”
Virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier stresses: “We’re still pretending that we’re inventing a brain when all we’ve come up with is a giant mash-up of real brains. We don’t yet understand how brains work, so we can’t build one.”
Support for AI
There are people who support AI, or at least are not bothered that it might be a threat. The American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said he does not fear AI, because it does not carry the evolutionary baggage humans have accumulated over thousands of years and so will not think like humans.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has consistently said that AI will be the future: “Every time we improve our AI methods, all of these systems get better. I’m excited about all the progress here and its potential to make the world better.” Others who share similar views include Sundar Pichai of Google, Ginni Rometty of IBM, Sebastian Thrun of Udacity and Carol Reiley of Drive.ai.
Does AI pick up its cues from human interaction?
How much does AI learn from humans? Take Tay as an example. Tay, short for “Thinking About You”, was an AI chatbot that Microsoft released on Twitter. It lasted all of 16 hours before Microsoft took it down, and the reason is hilarious, disconcerting and concerning all at once: the bot began posting inflammatory and offensive tweets. According to Microsoft, this was caused by trolls who “attacked” the service, as the bot replied based on its interactions with people on Twitter. A chatbot is software that automates conversations with people on messaging platforms, designed to convincingly simulate how a human would behave as a conversational partner.
There are other examples of AI behaving in questionable ways. Bob and Alice, two AI programs at Facebook, started talking to each other in a shorthand that was not programmed and not understandable to humans. No matter how much AI learns from and about humans, can it really replicate our behaviour or emotions well enough to pass the Turing test?
We are at a point where a robot named Sophia has been granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia. In a world where immigration is such a big concern, and people’s lives are at stake in that debate, we are willing to grant citizenship to a robot!
Written by Brijesh Gokhale. Read more writing