In recent times the concept of AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been the topic of discussion all over. When I say AI it means a Super Computer or a Humanoid Robot or in layman terms any intelligent machine capable of processing and analyzing data. Many people talk about the AI is the next big thing, AI will be replacing humans, AI will rise against humans, what so ever it may be, no one really knows how the outcome of full deployment of AI would be. AI is the capability of a machine to imitate super intelligent behaviour. It’s about the capabilities of machines to generate their own consciousness. The concept of AI isn’t very new it’s been there in existence for decades or I must say centuries. The existence of AI can be traced since mankind discovered logical reasoning all the way taking us to Ancient Greece, before Aristotle or Plato. There were giant robots as titans that were developed to perform a task on their own intellectual thinking, no doubt those were mystical creatures made by the gods* as per the mythology goes, however it was enough for humans to take the inspiration of something that is autonomous and has its own thinking. This phenomenon gave birth to the idea of AI. AI cannot just be a computer running simulations doing calculations on its own. It is more than that, it was is a machine with a personality, thinking capability and just to cover everything, emotions too.
I am not going into details of how it is programmed or designed because it would be out of scope to this blog just to give an idea of how it works, it will be safe to say it mimics the humans. With some computations, it will generate data that would be stored and processed to resemble with the data gathered mimicking humans. However, as it will be spontaneous the response time for AI to learn a skill will be incredible. Recently I read a paper on how the AI learned hand gestures in 30 minutes that takes an average human about 10 years to learn. In short the AI will have an IQ (Intelligence Quotient) of a superhuman, however, the level of IQ will decide the abilities of the AI, I’m sure the scientists have figured out a way to control the learning curve for these machines. Thus explaining the variances in the AI systems available in the market, namely Siri by Apple, Google assistant, Alexa by Amazon and so on. The capacity of these systems is limited by an IQ controlling algorithm; the learning curve gets disrupted once the system tries to cross the set threshold, basically the smartness limit.
Imagine you give a call to the customer care of service/product related company and you have interactions with an executive and your issues are resolved but once it’s done you are informed that you were talking to a Chatbot. Well, that is happening, right now. That is AI. The personal assistant in our phone is AI. The games you play on a console are designed in AI. Thus whatever is process driven can be articulated as AI. It’s like gravity, where ever you go on earth the gravity will be the same as 9.8 m/s2 if we are to compare the same scenario to the AI we could say the universally accepted processes can be fine-tuned to perfection and thus can be made to replicate it with the AI. That can be something to worry given the thoughts what implications the AI implementation would have on the jobs done by humans. We better think about improving our skill set to cope up with this rather than moaning about machines replacing us. corporations will take measures to reduce their expenditure, not just that, the probabilities of human errors are on the higher end, Darwin theory of evolution overall.
There are many theories, movies, cults about the AI going rogue and turning against humans. Come on... AI was developed to make our lives easy, its main purpose is to serve us, how on earth would the basic or probably the core idea for the existence of AI would turn it against us?, consider a situation when a humanoid robot or a computer system having AI designated to serve us in the most suitable way, however, we are the slaves of our habits, we tend to give in to our weak side when it comes to certain things, but the AI would not see this as a suitable course of action for us, there will be a difference of interest between us and AI. Suddenly there will be two opposite sides, not humans and the AI, but humans and the “Better option” for us according to AI. According to AI? This is the stage where the friction will start. Remember AI is a self-learning entity; it will take a stand on its side, the side that is better for us according to it as suggested or programmed into the AI's core idea. I have read a number of papers on how or when would the machines turn against us presented by many scientists and theorists, but no paper addresses this concern as to how to control the level to which AI will make decisions for our better life or decisions of what is most suitable for us humans, and to what level would the AI go to force the better decision option on us.
In my readings, I came across the practical applications of AI and one in particular that fascinated me, it is the idea of eternal life, the idea of being immortal. This does sound like a plot from a fictional movie but on paper, the idea is achievable and of course through AI. When I say immortal life, let me clear on what do I mean, as I always say and believe we are only as good as alive as our mind. There are techniques to draw mind patterns for your thoughts and your thought process, it is the EEG technology with some alteration. It is like getting a histogram of your brain in different situations, in different emotional situations I mean. As mentioned earlier the AI can replicate humans, thus if we are able to find the bridge between our consciousness and the way AI processes the information, we can and we will be able to transfer our thoughts and feelings to a humanoid robot with AI. Of course, it will need a link to stay connected with our body and mind made of flesh and bones, thus a syncing mechanism will be in place. Don't think in the unnatural or the unethical side of this, but think on what if it is achievable, we can never lose anyone in our life, it can be an extended life for everyone with ON-OFF-RESTART buttons.
Nothing to get alarmed by anything as yet, I will conclude this blog by mentioning one very important thing. Even if it is predicted that the full compatibility of AI systems will take a couple of decades to actually have a significant effect on our lives, we would never know if there is a fast-forward button for all this and we can live among robots with personalities, not to forget "Sophia" the humanoid robot was declared of being into existence in a fortnight.
This is again a very huge area to discuss, but if anyone is curious enough can contact me on my email.
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