Artificial Intelligence is definitely a controversial though fascinating subject for our today’s society. Eliezer Yudkowsky said “By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.” Most people imagine AI as robots with human-like characteristics as portrayed in science fiction books and films and do not really know what artificial intelligence really is. As a matter of fact, AI can encompass anything from Google’s search algorithms to self-driving cars. Simply put, AI stands for computer systems that behave intellectually, reason rationally and effectively interpret the environment in real time. The ramifications of its use, though, are much more complex than the definition.
It could be argued that the implementation and incorporation of artificial intelligence across multiple fields have brought about significant positive changes in our lives. Needless to say, the advantages of AI are numerous, the most obvious being speed, flexibility, durability, duplication, and as a result, costs reduction. Moreover, the use of AI systems eliminates the impact of the “human factor”. For instance, contrary to human beings, AI is not affected by any fluctuations in emotional state, which adds to its reliability.
At the same time, some people point out that artificial intelligence can end up being humanity’s major existential threat. Scientists agree that although the characteristics of these systems are drawn from human intelligence, AI has the capacity to supersede the human mind, fast. Many argue that the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans are to be feared. Stephen Hawking goes as far as to suggest that, “the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” Taking into consideration the recent advances in the IT industry, we may safely conclude that super intelligent machines are a thing of the foreseeable future.
On balance, we must comment on the fact that there are still certain major limitations that come along with AI systems. Firstly, they are still quite costly to operate. Secondly, they can only handle specified tasks for which they have been designed. And last but not least, they cannot be used in isolation without the presence of human beings. They lack our common sense and creative reasoning. So in conclusion, when it comes to artificial intelligence, so far managing the possibility of the rise of the machines is not the first item on the agenda.
But in my opinion, it is definitely in the top ten.