Can AI’s Recent Rise Propel it Into the Future?

Despite the futuristic connotation commonly associated with artificial intelligence, the technology still has a very long way to go. Fortunately, the efforts are being powered commercially across the globe. At present, China leads the world with over half of its businesses adopting AI. Canada, the U.K., and Australia trail behind China with many businesses expressing interest in adoption in the future. Consequently, it is anticipated AI will influence around 60% of the population before the end of the decade. Companies are exploring AI to see how it can serve the company, but it is much more necessary that the company serves the AI.

AI has become popularized for its potential to skyrocket productivity and minimize time doing simple or menial tasks. However, these tremendous advantages do not come without mistakes or errors. In this current state, AI has particular limitations with image recognition. In some instances, AI mistook a bald head for a soccer ball and has also confused congressional members as criminals. All of these essentially equates to requiring more human effort and time in order to correct these and allow the technology to learn. Although these can be easily solved with technological advancement in the future, AI has much larger systemic concerns.

What AI Needs to Learn From Humans

Firstly, AI has to be taught and is thereby subject to subconscious biases and prejudices of whoever taught it. This can be problematic as it can lead to unfair decisions that conflict with larger objectives, one example being diversity hiring goals. On a much grander scale, AI is not able to effectively emulate the ‘human aspect’ of humanity. Things such as creativity, empathy, and desire for collaboration cannot be programmed into artificial intelligence, at least not in its current form. Because of this, AI cannot produce anything unexpected or even have a reason to act on its own. As a result, human interaction with AI  is needed to not only invoke artificial intelligence to act, but also to teach it on how to give responses. This poses the question of how true the word ‘intelligence’ is in ‘artificial intelligence’.

Paradoxically, the best way to overcome the aforementioned problems is with more human intervention, creating a quasi-positive feedback loop. In a sense, AI’s problems will get ‘worse before they get better’, but with the swift pace of AI growth the ‘better’ shouldn’t be long at all. Aside from optimization in completing straightforward tasks, there is room for AI to be able to do more complex tasks as well. With proper and meticulous guidance, coupled with the remarkable advancements in this technology, AI can ascend far beyond what we consider possible in the present day. This could very well include creativity, morality, high-level decision-making, and even empathy.

Conclusion

While these possibilities are still yet to come, the progress AI has made to date is still remarkable and beneficial to just about anybody. Commercial adoption of AI is already staggering, and the success it has seen insinuates this trend will only reinforce itself. With the breakneck pace the technology has been growing, it’s likely that the future of AI will be even sooner than we may realize.