impact of artificial intelligence on the society
“I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I’m rooting for the machines.” —Claude Shannon
Technology is changing our society; Digitalization is changing the way we live. This change creates conveniences and ways of problem solving they were never been possible before.
From Siri, the virtual assistant in Apple mobile devices, to self-driving cars, artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing rapidly, outperforming humans at some tasks. As with the majority of the changes happening globally, there will be positive and negative impacts as AI continues to shape the world we live in. Every single one of us will have to reckon with our ability to balance the human way of life and the transition to the AI cosmos.
AI is definitely on the rise in both business and life in general. The question is, will humans eventually lose control as machines become super-intelligent? Unforeseen consequences are likely whenever a new technology is introduced, and AI is no exception.
Away from the office, we can see that more and more people are living in “smart” cities, homes or equipping their residences with hardware and software that can reduce energy usage and provide better security, among other benefits. AI is also having a profound impact on healthcare, leading to improved diagnosis and treatment of many conditions, leading to healthier citizens and healthier economies.
The ability of technology to answer more questions, solve more problems and innovate in previously unimaginable ways goes beyond the capacity of the human brain for better or worse, depending on how one perceives this subject. The elevation of technology will allow individuals to focus on higher functions, with improved quality living standards.
Therefore, it is vital for us to be more skeptical of AI and recognize its shortcomings together with its potential. By focusing more on training people in soft skills, starting in school, we can help produce a greater number of employable humans who will be able to work alongside machines to deliver the best of both worlds.
Let us look at some scenario where Technology can play a large part in our lives…………….
Imagine if we could search our surroundings in the same way we search the web. Using existing cameras and advances in AI, we can now find things and people in the real world, in real time and take action to improve safety and well-being. When a dangerous spill occurs in a chemical plant, cameras recognize the incident, information about the spill is instantly shared with the people who need it the most enabling them to protect other employees from coming in contact with the hazard, and clean it up.
This technology can also help keep people safer in hospitals. Patients recovering from heart surgery are limited to how much they should exert themselves. When someone exceeds the prescribed level of activity, a nurse is alerted, the location of the closest wheelchair is identified so that the nurse can quickly get the patient shifted and keep safe.
This technology is also useful in an environment like a construction site where specialized tools needed by people are spread out, sometimes across multiple floors. Using cameras already in place, this technology can identify a specific tool as well as the closest authorized person who can deliver it saving everyone’s time and keeping the workflow moving. With AI the digital and physical worlds have come together to make everyone more safe, secure, and productive.
When using Smartphone we interact with AI from the obvious features such as the built-in smart assistants (Alexa, Siri) to not so obvious ones such as the portrait mode (Google Pixel 2) in the camera. With Social Media becoming non-separable part of today’s life, the feeds that we see in our timeline to the notifications that we receive from these apps everything is being curate by AI, impacting most of the decisions we make. The recommended videos section on YouTube or Netflix has become so good at knowing our tastes because AI is playing a big role in making decisions for us.
Whenever we use Google/Apple Maps for navigating or calling an Uber or booking a flight ticket, we are using AI. AI is behind many of Google’s products and is a big priority for the company. The banking and finance industry heavily relies on artificial intelligence for things like customer service, fraud protection, chat bots, investment.
Spam filters in our email inbox and Smart email categorization that we experience with Gmail are AI-powered. E-commerce web application sites use AI neural networks to quickly return a wide list of the most relevant products as well as personalized recommendations on the home page, bottom of item pages and through email to increase their revenue tremendously.
Illustrations above all of our lives are impacted by AI on a daily basis at every level. Artificial Intelligence became the most important part of our daily life. Our life is changed by AI because this technology is used in a wide area of day to day services. Challenges will continue to come and go, but the biggest one will be for humans to find their place in this new world, by staking a claim to all the activities that call for their unique human abilities. The truth is, people will still work, but they will work better with the assistance of AI. In other words, the unparalleled duo of human and machines coming together will soon turn into the “New Normal” in the workforce.