Guest Post

Is Artificial Intelligence Really Making the World A Better Place?

When we talk about Artificial Intelligence, most people picturise the T-800 from the Terminator movie series. But actually, that is just an exaggerated way of representing Artificial Intelligence. In reality, we are far away from achieving that. But so far, we can not deny that Artificial Intelligence is deep-rooted in our world right now. From self-driving cars or mobile phones, we are surrounded by Artificial Intelligence. But is it going to be helpful or disastrous? Can Artificial Intelligence really make the world a better place? Let us find out in this article.

This article is divided into two sections, “the good” and “the bad.” We will first try to understand the benefits of Artificial Intelligence and how it can help humanity. Secondly, We will talk about all the bad stuff and problems we can possibly face because of Artificial Intelligence.

Levels at Which Artificial Intelligence Is Beneficial For Us.

From virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa to self-driving vehicles, we have come a long way in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence helped us to do things that we never even thought to do. Yet, the scope for innovation and progress in Artificial Intelligence is immense.

Today we have Artificial Intelligence-based tools and robots that can almost imitate human behavior & more or less even replaces a human. Artificial Intelligence is that superpower that can make human life so easy that you can not even imagine.

Now, let us discuss some applications and benefits of Artificial Intelligence:

Takes risks instead of Humans:

It’s probably the most significant leap that we have taken with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence can be used to replace humans with robots in areas and tasks that involve life danger—for example- defusing bombs, mining for coal and oil, or exploring the deepest parts of our universe.

24×7 Availability

How many hours do you think an average human can work? 9-12 hours at most…right? But what if we replace the humans with Artificial Intelligence-based robots who can work tirelessly for weeks and even months? And guess what, these robots don’t even need tea breaks, unlike humans.

Well, I know a robot can never replace a human; it is impossible. But we can do it in a few departments and sectors like customer support or backend or anywhere the task is repetitive in Nature.

Reduction in Human Error:

Humans tend to make mistakes again and again. Moreover, they repeat the same mistakes even after getting warned! However, computers are more likely to make fewer mistakes than humans and never repeat the same mistake if programmed correctly. With the help of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, we can design machines that can learn from past data on their own without any human interference; hence, reducing the errors and increasing the work precision.

Faster Decisions:

With the help of Artificial Intelligence, we can make faster decisions than ever. Artificial Intelligence helps us analyze all the data correctly and reduce the hours-long analysis processes, which eventually makes decision-making faster. Also, there are several places (where decisions won’t seriously impact the outcome) machines themselves can make decisions on the basis of humans. Though the problem here is that a machine can only take decisions based on inputs it has been provided while a human will analyze many factors both emotionally and practically.

Medical Advancements:

The use of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare has been immensely helpful. Now many diseases can be detected at an early stage, saving thousands of patients. For example, using Remote Patient Monitoring, doctors can perform clinical diagnoses without even the patient’s presence. Patients can get treatment right from their homes! I know it sounds unbelievable, but it is true. Another such advancement is in the detection of multiple deadly diseases. Breast cancer can now be predicted at an early stage using advanced Artificial Intelligence-based technologies.

Cybersecurity:

Cybersecurity breaches are one of the biggest problems of the modern world. According to estimates, there were more than half a million cybersecurity breaches in 2020, and almost 155.8 million individuals were affected by data exposures. Companies are struggling to fight against these hackers. A Certified Ethical Hacker has the skills and expertise to overcome such issues effectively. One possible solution to this is self-learning and automation capabilities enabled by Artificial Intelligence. It can help to protect data more systematically, keeping people as well as companies safer from hackers and data thieves. Artificial Intelligence-based tools continuously scan for malicious patterns in the system and programs and stop them before they can steal and cause havoc.

Transportation:

Thanks to automobile giants like MG, BMW, Tesla, Volkswagen, etc., self-driving cars are already here. However, they are not totally self-driving, but by the year 2030, we will have fully automated driverless cars that can arrive at any destination on just a few commands. Driverless trains are already running on European rail tracks, and Boeing is on its way to building an autonomous jetliner.

Acquiring More Customers While Fetching Ever-Increasing Profits

The sector enjoying the most benefit of Artificial Intelligence in terms of monetary returns is the business sector. No matter what kind of business you do, customer experience can never be ignored. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, companies have been able to provide amazing sales and after-sales experiences.

Let us understand with a simple example- Amazon’s algorithms (based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning models) help a customer complete his journey from first discovering the product to finally getting converted. Amazon’s algorithms are made up of deep learning and machine learning models and are designed in such a way that they can track your consumption patterns and interests to recommend further similar products. Ever got a recommendation to buy a mobile case just after hours of purchasing the new mobile device? Well, that’s what we are talking about here. By the way, if you are wondering, this gets done via Recommendation Engines using the KNN Algorithm.

To sum it up, I would say that Artificial Intelligence has the power to do tasks at a much faster speed that too with minimum risk.

Now, let us have a look at the drawbacks and risks of Artificial Intelligence so we can finally decide whether it is really helpful or not.

Risks In Artificial Intelligence

As we grow in the field of Artificial Intelligence, the voices warning against its pitfalls grow louder. Few question what if Artificial Intelligence escapes our control and wreaks havoc? Well, It’s something that might not come to fruition any time soon, so at this point, it’s nothing more than a hypothetical threat.

Immediate Risk- Job Automation

This is currently the most concerning issue with Artificial Intelligence right now. Most of the jobs will soon be replaced by Artificial Intelligence. Many jobs that are repetitive in Nature are already getting replaced. According to studies, nearly 36 million people’s jobs are at risk to automation. Tasks like retail sales, market analysis, hospitality, and warehouse labor — will be done using Artificial Intelligence.

Risk Of Privacy & Security

A prime example is facial recognition technology in offices, colleges, and mobiles phones. We are blatantly sacrificing our digital data at our convenience. This poses a huge risk to our privacy. For example- last year, hackers made tonnes of deep fakes using stolen audio and video data and used it in various thefts.

Biased algorithms

These machines only work on the basis of data that has been fed to them.

There are currently many cases where algorithms were fed to disadvantage specific groups. This eventually leads to automation bias. In simple words, taking suggestions from “automated decision-making systems” more seriously and ignoring the decisions and appeals created by people, even if it is correct.

Liability for actions

What if a machine commits a blunder? Who will take the liability when the AI system makes an error? Can a company or an engineer be held responsible for the blunder of an algorithm that has learned by itself and determines its own course based on extensive amounts of data? How we hold non-living responsible when it has drawn its conclusions on the basis of previous outcomes. Can we accept an error by Artificial Intelligence machines without making anyone accountable? Well, we don’t have answers to any of these questions yet.

Conclusion:

Artificial Intelligence will indeed define our future. The way we make use of Artificial Intelligence will decide whether we will live in a Utopian society or a Dystopian society. But for now, we can believe that Artificial Intelligence has far more benefits than its drawbacks and risks.

Without a doubt, Artificial Intelligence is a powerful technology and can also be misused depending on the person. Today, Artificial Intelligence is being used for many good causes, such as in medics to find and cure incurable diseases and predict them at an early stage, to make transportation easy, convenient, and faster, to benefit both customers and businesses much more. Yet, the pitfalls lying in the near future cannot be overlooked, so we will definitely have to find ways to tackle them and find the best ways to develop positivity and reduce its destructive potential.