The question is not if it will happen but when it will happen.
“AI is going to change the world more than anything in the history of mankind,”
– Kai-Fu Lee
Artificial Intelligence or AI, is an essential branch of science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans. AI makes it attainable for machines to ‘learn’ from experience and perform human-like tasks. Life would be easier with the help of AI but is it really all good? We thought that it would be impossible for machines to think and act like us, humans. Who would have thought that it would be attainable!?
The advancement in our technological endeavorment is so evolved that we are trying to manufacture superhuman machines. The idea of it emerged from imagination, fantasy, a vision of directors. It is a cliche that preoccupied films. The sci-fi movie “Bicentennial Man” of 1999 was something I contemplate when I was younger. It left a deep impression on me as a kid. The plot appears to be futuristic, grandiose and seems unviable and impossible. It is about an android endeavoring to become a human as it gradually acquires emotions. It’s a heartwarming story and all but what if it is happening in the real world? What are they capable of doing just to achieve their goals?
Its arrival will be a substantial occurrence in our history. We, humans, are accustomed to a modern, highly industrialized, and a life free from impractical, inefficient, and hardships. We are intrigued about how our lives would be if with robots, who will do our tasks so that we can focus our time on other things we wanted to do.
So, how can AI be dangerous? A lot of big names in the industry like Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and others have expressed their concerns about the risk posed by AI in our society. Though researchers say that they are “unlikely” to exhibit human emotions and that there are no reasons to expect them to become malevolent, how sure are we that they won’t be able to? Teaching machines to learn for themselves is a brilliant bypass. Just like all things it involves cutting corners.
We should be very careful with artificial intelligence. It may be our biggest existential threat. Just like what the famous quotation says, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” We should put a limitation. Limitation to up to where is ethical. We should know when to stop and not do things we aren’t supposed to do in the first place. Just like an old saying, curiosity is what killed the cat. We must remember that all good things have bad attached to it. Everything we have now is an outcome of our intelligence, with AI it may open new doors and help us humanity flourish like never before. Keep in mind that we need to keep technology “beneficial”.
Article by Gale Gideon Gan.
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