Rise of the Machine: Real Dangers of Artificial Intelligence

http://s3.amazonaws.com/digitaltrends-uploads-prod/2014/01/artificial-intelligence.jpg

One day soon, humans will create technology that will develop consciousness, enslave us and then proceed to destroy humanity, or so it goes. There have been several movies that have portrayed the danger of self-aware machines, including the very popular Terminator and Matrix franchises. However, should we be worried, are our futures are really threatened by artificial intelligence (AI) systems? It sounds like a movie doesn’t it, something inconceivable. Despite this several figures including Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk have expressed concern about superintelligent machines. Thus, if these brilliant men of science and technology are concerned, shouldn’t the rest of us be? Firstly, before you start panicking and building bunkers, let’s first understand what an artificial intelligent system is. Artificial intelligence is basically a branch in computer science that specializes in creating intelligent machines. Intelligent in that it can plan, solve problems and most importantly learn and dialogue. It sounds pretty spectacular, a machine able to understand and help solve your issues. IA are very much part of our daily lives and we pay little attention to them because of how easy they make life. For example, they can do a variety of things, small things such as recommending restaurants to dine in based on preferences, performing medical diagnosis.

Nevertheless, computers may be a lot of things, but humans still far surpass even the smartest computer. Currently, the smartest computer is as smart as a four year old. So, no need to worry right? Wrong. The real problem at the moment is not AI taking over the world, but simple the fact that it is poised to take over many jobs. A world where computer systems will eventually drive a majority of people into poverty and uplift a few into vast wealth is not fictional. AI are constantly getting, better, smarter, continuously improving due to achievements in processor speeds. Meanwhile our brains have not had any major upgrades in 50,000 years! Artificial intelligence has long arrived in our workplaces, in fact study shows that someone like a loan officer has a 98% probability of being replaced by a computer, while surgeons remain the safest from the plunder of artificial intelligence. 

It is wise to be cautious, computers are learning, have less probability of making errors and are cheaper and easier to maintain than humans. No job is safe; we are already seeing self driving cars, application that can translate languages, and more factories have employed machines to carry out tasks. So, although the scenario of machines taking over the world is still far off, they are affecting our lives. Humans now need to be critical, creative, and flexible to compete with machines.