AI: Opportunities and challenges, fears and expectations

 

AI: Opportunities and challenges

Artificial Intelligence is a tool to process information faster and of adapting behaviours. We try to find a proper definition, but it is still early days and as the recent Mid-Term Elections in the USA prove there is more that we do not know and this scares people. Maybe fears about AI are justified and maybe not. Every new technological advance generates reactions, some favourable, some unfavourable. Thomas Alba Edison was told that electricity would not work when they were talking about lighting up a big city. The Wright brothers were told that airplanes could not fly as they were heavier than air. People used to believe that if you sailed too far in a given direction you would fall or be killed by marine monsters.

One of the challenges of AI is to have enough electricity to power up big concentrations of computers and servers that make AI possible. There were times when locomotives were powered with steam engines fed with vast amount of coal. Later on other kind of fuel were used and we had locomotives that left behind steam technology and became faster and more efficient. I have a feeling that sooner than later we are going to find technologies that will provide the energy needed to run AI centres with cheaper costs and even transform AI centres so that less energy is needed.

We follow the evolution of computers from computers that used to occupy a big room, given their size and despite limite power to process information. We now pack vast amounts of technology inside a wristwatch. You do not need to turn a lever to activate your telephone. In fact, you carry your telephone inside your pocket and this machine will allow you to make calls, send texts and images, explore the Internet, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But I guess that some traits of human nature are still with us. We are afraid when we do not know enough. Paradoxically, we do not know nearly enough about how things that we have become accustomed to on daily basis are made. We simply become accustomed to machines that become part of our daily routine and suffer a lot when we do not have access to machines. Many of us cannot survive without our televisions and telephones, cars, fridges, freezers, computers and laptors and if ever they malfunction we become depressed, anxious, worried and angry. Look, we need to get to the airport pretty quickly because otherwise we are going to miss the flight. Can you call John and find out if he managed to make the reservations and ask him to tell us if he is going to be waiting for us?

We are so used to technology that we even use it without thinking about all it took to make it real. Should AI be any different?

Now, surveys indicate that about 70 or so percent of voters have concerns about AI and AI share prices fell dramatically as soon as the outcome of the Mid-Term Elections in the USA was known. Why? Because of fear? 

Fear is a human reaction and many people might not even suspect that they have been using AI without even noticing.