“THE” EVOLUTION FROM SCIENCE FICTION TO REALITY — ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Once greatness was just limited to our hyperbole imagination and Sci-Fi movies like Matrix and as supercool droids from the Star Wars franchise. No sooner this hyperbole thing become reality came to be known by the word ‘Artificial Intelligence ’ (AI)- and this figment of imagination in fiction writings by famous authors have taken root in our everyday life.
Going by complexities and the excitement in the world of AI, it has become one of the most happening things in the history of the evolution of technology and thus mankind. By far it has just not only became an important topic to discuss but ‘THE’ most important topic which not governs a lot of our present but also will be ruling our future.
Thus due to outrageously long reach and aspect of the topic breaking the article seems more suitable.
So what exactly is Artificial Intelligence?
As per the Wikipedia definition — It is an ideal “intelligent” machine/software which at the same time can act rationally on perceiving the changes in its environment and has the capability to take actions to maximize its chance of success at some goal. And as the name suggests, the word Artificial is associated with human intelligence which is capable to think and act on its own independently. The cherry on the cake, this intelligence being electronic is precise and has the capacity to store and deliver results at a much better rate than human intelligence itself.
Seems like this new development has just made many great deals easy. Weather forecasts, email spam filtering, Google’s search predictions, and voice recognition, such as Siri, Cortana, etc. have paved the way as means of daily usage of this technology in our lives. Oh, feeling sorry for you grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand — it seems the AI-based bots in Chess games can easily beat you fair and square. And yeah car Drivers get on your back seat because self-driving cars have stepped up to do your work! The splendid marvels of AI have just blurred the lines between reality and fantasy!
Undoubtedly, see some of your news feed and you will the AI shining bright in its gold-plated armor!
Each and every other new day updates and research in this technology, it seems it would reach the unthinkable. It could be one goddamn product of human intelligence everything that civilization has to offer. Droids like BB-8 would be just another toy for children to play with. Life’s most complex problems and mysteries regarding the environment, aging, diseases, wars, poverty, famine, the origins of the universe, and deep-space exploration, just to name a few, it’ll soon be powered by A.I. systems, acting as the brains of super-human machines.
The field of AI isn’t a new one, but it’s now become so hot that tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook have been snapping up not only companies but also students and other experts trained and prepared to leverage the technology for business and it seems that acquiring these advanced AI technologies is one of the hottest race between these giants. The purchase of DeepMind, a London-based artificial intelligence company, in 2014 by Google at $650 mn just speaks the volume of the hotness and greatness of this new technology.
Truly, The success of AI would just bring a huge paradigm shift, the world would have never seen it before. This most dramatic technological will upheaval all of human history, and the next 100 years is set to pave the way for a multi-generational leap forward.
But the question is would this paradigm shift will be for greater benefit?
Would the creator of this technology -human would itself be able to digest this technology all of a sudden? Really could one fathom that having the first fully autonomous AI would help in any shape their social acceptance?
It doesn’t take Einstein’s brain to figure about all the above questions. The answer seems that AI instead for the greater good would bring to greater destruction of the world. And as we say — history repeats itself! Considering the previous annihilation of Japan by nuclear technology if a human is not careful enough as per the assumption AI is capable of it will not only destroy continents but the whole human race!
So AI — Is it really a Boon or Bane? Well, this doesn’t seem to be a question to debate, a more of a fact considering the unsteady and continuously rising ambitious nature of Man. The gains we would make in AI would not only destroy us but would inspire us to destroy ourselves. Nick Bostrom perfectly nailed at explaining this by symbolizing King Midas’ greed for gold turning her own daughter to gold with man’s greed which has the capability to dig holes for the entire mankind.
Some of the interesting scenarios which would further stand against enhancing AI technology:
- Since AI is after all a man-made product. And as humans are prone to error in the initial stages there are almost 99.99% chances there could be bugs in AI software. Before the developer solves the bug, If by chance the AI being capable to think itself overcomes the bug and develops some notorious software it could lead to disaster.
- Ever since man learned to create fire, he has been continuously evolving “exponentially”, creating radical new technologies every century or so. And it seems at this point in time the turn of the exponential curve could be so steep that instead of furthering mankind it could lead to its annihilation at once. The below graph would perfectly describe the situation of mankind now!
And as we look in past each radical innovation was accompanied by a wealth of benefits and pitfalls. And each of these new paradigm shifts has brought some new irreversible effects on our society. And it seems this time if we blink an eye even for a nano-second for the statement by
Harris -” We’re going to build superhuman machines, but we haven’t yet grappled with the problems associated with creating something that may treat us the way we treat ants.” become true and ultimately be crushed under our own invention.
AI seems here to stay because of its benefits but man needs to control his ambition and put his personal gains on the side else the end is near. So let’s just hope for the betterment of mankind!
Inspired by-
Ted Talks by
Nick Bostrom -https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_bostrom_what_happens_when_our_computers_get_smarter_than_we_are/
Sam Harris - https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_can_we_build_ai_without_losing_control_over_it
