We have already been using products powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) for a while — perhaps without even knowing it. For example, email spam is fast detected by machine learning, which is a subset of AI. Google translation, Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Netflix’s recommendations for films, are all powered by AI. While AI has been around for decades, it is now gaining popularity in the technology world for two main reasons: a) large data sets, and b) computational power. To make the most of AI you will need both to succeed.
Today, thanks to smart phones and the Internet of things(IoT) applications, we are creating quintillion bytes of data daily. And that’s a lot of data. We now also have the computational power to process such large amounts of data which was unavailable in the past.
I am truly excited about AI and the impact it will have in our future, particularly in the future of work, healthcare, and in tackling climate change.
Many businesses and individuals are optimistic that this AI-driven shift in the workplace will result in more jobs being created than lost. As we develop innovative technologies, A.I will have a positive impact on our economy by creating jobs that require the skill set to implement new systems and upstream technologies. 80% of respondents in the EY survey said it was the lack of these skills that was the biggest challenge when employing AI programmes.
It is apparent that artificial intelligence will soon replace jobs involving repetitive or basic problem-solving tasks, and might even go beyond current human capability. AI systems will be making decisions instead of humans in industrial settings, customer service roles and within financial institutions. Automated decisioning will be responsible for tasks such as approving loans, deciding whether a customer should be onboarded or identifying corruption and financial crime.
Organisations will benefit from an increase in productivity as a result of greater automation, meaning more revenue will generated. This thus provides additional money to spend on supporting jobs in the services sector.
In the area of healthcare, A.I could work alongside medical professionals and support staff to improve diagnosis. With A.I, the accuracy of diagnosis can be enhanced significantly and trends in epidemics mapped and predicted. For example, deep learning is already on its way to diagnose irregular heart rhythms from ECG better than a cardiologist.
In a recent study, Google’s A.I algorithm identified diabetic blindness slightly better than an ophthalmologist. The good news lies not just in increased accuracy, but also the broader accessibility that these machines will bring making a higher social impact worldwide.
Finally, climate change is something that will impact all of us, and sadly, it will affect those most who have done least to cause it. AI will be an important tool here as well. For example, using AI to control street traffic lights can help reduce car emissions in America. Power usage can be optimized and regulated based on demand. Supplementing computer vision with AI could also map the Earth’s surface to track deforestation, predict water shortages, and warn about other geographical changes.
When AI is implemented in our daily activities, not only will our lives get more convenient, but it will also help preserve our resources.
Nothing as radical as the movie A.I. will happen in our lifetime. I would say that none of these changes will happen suddenly. Technology integrations will become so ingrained in our lives that you will not even realize that they are happening.
However, I acknowledge that AI isn’t perfect. In the end, it is we who design AI and the systems behind it. Our flaws and weaknesses will reflect there as well. The prediction will only be as good as the data fed to it. The biases in data will show in the output as well. But that is again where we come in. We can use our understanding and judgment when considering the prediction. We can also build algorithms that detect bias in the datasets.
To tackle biases we can make sure that our engineers are diverse and so is our data, support open data and transparent policies. There is also a well-founded fear that AI will take away jobs, which is true, but more jobs will also be created. Machines took away typewriting jobs, but do we miss them? We shouldn’t fear AI but embrace it. There is a lot that humanity has yet to achieve. AI may be the new electricity, but it won’t succeed until we collaborate and build the pipelines that will power our future.
