Why am I fascinated with Artificial Intelligence?

Some of us believe that human beings are better than other animals because of their intelligence. What happens when we create machines that can simulate our intelligence? When machines become capable of understanding, learning, analyzing, deducing, and performing like us, it is Artificial intelligence (AI). That is how I understand it. I got fascinated with the term when I started exploring and enjoying my Nintendo Switch games. AI is used widely in the gaming industry, the most prevalent being Non-player characters (NPCs) and their behavior and actions.  I am charmed by how AI is weaved almost everywhere in our life without even our realization.

Machines can stimulate the human brain and perform many tasks by using complex code, programming, and algorithms (rules or steps). It is intriguing how Machine Learning can process and analyze huge data based on patterns and make decisions based on it.      

How fascinating can AI be?

From social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram to online shopping websites like Amazon, from using Siri and Alexa to navigation using GPS, AI is everywhere. Be it Software, Hardware, Mass production, Banking, Healthcare, or Gaming, AI is changing the future of all industries. Our everyday life has become so interesting with digital assistants. Whether it is asking for directions, setting timers, or translating words, digital assistants have made our lives multiple times easier and more efficient.

Artificial Intelligence is used to program machines to do repetitive jobs. It can therefore save us time to do more creative jobs. Also, we can explore difficult, unknown, and risky terrains. Using Robots for Mars missions, being near a nuclear reactor, diving deep into the ocean, all becomes easier with machines. Machines make fewer errors, work with more precision, and do not get exhausted like us. They also do not need breaks or feel sleepy, and are never bored like me doing mundane jobs 😊

Can AI be a problem for us?

Artificial Intelligence does not work like human intelligence. A machine can be programmed to do certain tasks efficiently without getting tired. But it lacks the emotions of a human being. Since machines cannot feel like us, they cannot choose between good or bad or understand the intentions of a task. Therefore, the use of AI raises some ethical issues. Elon Musk calls AI ‘more dangerous than nukes.’ Bill Gates says, like nuclear energy, it is ‘both promising  and dangerous.’ He feels that one of such applications is in warfare. What would happen when robots or unmanned drones like machines get out of our control in a war? Stephen Hawking in an interview with BBC said, “humans, limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded by A.I.”

Artificial Intelligence has high costs and could also result in increase in unemployment. Also, too much of dependency on machines can make us lazy and we might lose the motivation and passion for creating something new.

What two AI areas would I love to explore?

I find the use of AI impressive in the following areas:

AI in Healthcare

The entire ecosystem of healthcare has changed with the usage of AI and Robotics. Machines can make predictions, early detections, monitoring, and treatment of diseases like cancer. AI can help in carrying out procedures with more precision and in lesser time. It can handle huge healthcare data, analyze it, make predictions of diseases, and identify risk patients considering several factors. IBM’s Watson is one such development that helps define treatment for patients based on predictive analytics. AI is also making the drug discovery process more efficient. Further, AI is making it possible for robots to perform surgeries guided by doctors besides doing the lab repetitive tasks and carrying out physiotherapies.

AI in Gaming Industry

Machine learning has created a revolution in the gaming industry. Complex algorithms used in Consoles and VRs etc, create environments and characters displaying human intelligence. Consoles like Sony’s PlayStation create and implement an amazing world of virtual reality in games. How does all this happen? The machines store lots of data and then the characters use this information to perform actions and create a realistic environment based on data analytics. We can program machines to outsmart even humans. In 1997, IBM’s computer Deep Blue defeated the chess world champion Garry Kasparov. To this Kasparov said,” One Big Loss for a Man, One Giant Win for Mankind.” Wow!! This has set me thinking. What a huge leap technology can take.

Is AI better than humans?

As we become more dependent on machines, will we become lazy and less creative? Machines are good when used to benefit mankind like providing a limb to a handicapped, fighting diseases and poverty, improving crops, increasing food production, taking over mundane tasks, and making tasks more efficient. Our responsibility is to not use AI for destruction or warfare but to improve our lives and explore new possibilities.

Artificial Intelligence is the brainchild of human intelligence. Machines can be good and efficient helpers, can be more intelligent at times. But can they supersede our creativity, emotion, passion, and above all our experience? My mum often tells me that she can be more educated and efficient than her parents, but she can never be more experienced than them? I sense a similar feeling in Kasparov’s words, “Deep Blue was intelligent because it played grand-master-level chess. Now, if you look at the process, if you try to understand the intricate details of human intelligence, now Deep Blue, this phenomenal speed of 200 million positions per second, offers you no information because it was as intelligent as your alarm clock.”  He believes that machines and humans can work together where machines can take over ‘menial tasks’ and leave us time for ‘creativity, curiosity, beauty, and joy.’ We just need to be aware of the positives of Artificial Intelligence.

The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) also aims to promote the responsible use of AI. Machines will bring a better future as long they do not supersede us. When the creativity, emotion, intuition of humans is combined with the efficiency, calculative ability, unbiased approach of a computer, we will be better than a human or a machine alone.