How many Sci-fi movies involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) have you seen? I’m sure they highlighted the good, the bad and the ugly about AI. My favourite AI would be ‘JARVIS’ in Iron Man and the scariest would be ‘Alice’ in Resident Evil. I’m sure you have your favourite and least favourite AI too.
If Wikipedia is to be believed, Artificial Intelligence as a word and as a field of study was coined in 1956 (but I’m sure Marvel comic books saw it first). Various projections suggest that by 2030, intelligent agents and robots could replace up to 30 percent of the world’s current human labor.
Various schools of thought will view these predictions about AI differently, will it be a welcome development for mankind or will it be the end of mankind as it were (Terminator style)? Well, your answer depends on how you choose to look at it.
AI has a wide range of applications, and can be expanded across almost every sphere of human existence, from finance to healthcare, education, military (maybe not diplomacy), to construction just to name a few.
Due to little or no human involvement in the day to day operations of an AI, it has led to highly automated, fast and efficient production lines in the manufacturing industry. The health sector is also a big fan of AI and it is believed that with a more robust AI framework, healthcare delivery will be better and minimally invasive surgeries will be faster and carry less risk (That is if you’d allow a robot to operate on you).
Due to its versatility, AI is making appearances even in the financial market, recently Zenith Bank of Nigeria launched Z.I.V.A, an AI powered customer care assistance. If Iron Man’s JARVIS is anything to go by, AI could run entire businesses, and trade the financial markets, amongst other things.
On the flip side, because of reduced human involvement, AI will lack the empathy and restraint of humans. This is the crux of most of the fears about AI. If the machines do become sentient and decide to take over the world, can they be stopped? (Will Smith’s ‘I Robot’ comes to mind here)
Can an AI be trusted to trade the financial markets ethically, care so much about human life and do all it takes to preserve it. Can ones and zeros be a substitute for human touch or replace human affection in education? Can it be trusted to be fair, objective and moral? If AI takes over jobs what will people then do?
These are questions that are being asked daily about the integration of AI into the fabric of human existence. AI will in no doubt improve the quality of life for all humanity but doubts might linger for a long time about trust and boundaries.
I’m afraid the question “AI; Friend or Foe?” might remain unanswered for the foreseeable future. If you choose to consider AI a friend, as we do, you’ll most likely argue about its benefits across multiple fields.