“No matter how sophisticated or powerful our thinking machines become, there still will be two kinds of people: those who let the machines do their thinking, for them, and those who tell the machines what to think about.” —- C.J Lewis
Introduction
Artificial intelligence (Commonly referred to as AI) is a branch of computer science that pertains to the creation of intelligent machines that work and respond like humans. In the words of the father of Artificial Intelligence John McCarthy, Artificial Intelligence is “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs”. Some of the activities computers with artificial intelligence are designed for include speech recognition, learning, planning and problem solving. The latest intelligent machine is human robot that can emote and also change facial expressions. Let us examine the upcoming challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence in the days to come.
Different types of Artificial Intelligence are enumerated below:
- Reactive Machines
This form of Artificial Intelligence recognizes its environment and situation directly and acts accordingly. It does not have the power to memorize or recall past experiences to affect present decisions. IBM’s Deep Blue, a chess computer that, defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov, could identify the chess board and the pieces placed on it. This form of AI is designed only to perform specific tasks and can be easily fooled.
- Limited Memory
This form of AI contains machines that have limited memory and can recall past experiences. They can take proper decisions and plan appropriate actions. For instance, self driving cars observe the speed and direction of other cars and move accordingly. They have pre-built programs for lane markings, traffic lights and other important elements, like curves in the road.
- Theory of Mind
This form of AI has the capability to understand emotions and thoughts that affect human behaviour, though it is still in the developing stage. It anticipates machines that can identify eye and face movements and act accordingly. Sophia, the latest generation human robot can emote and imitate 62 facial and neck expressions,
- Self-aware
This is an extension of theory of mind AI. These types of machines are aware about their internal state can predict the feelings of others. This type of AI has not been developed as yet but is in progress. Self aware AI is the future of machines which will be super intelligent, conscious and sell aware.
- Artificial Intelligence: Advancements in Technology
Major technological advancements in AI are as follows:
- Artificial Narrow Intelligence, the most common technology that can be found in our day to day lives is present in smart phones like Cortana and Siri. They help users to respond to their problems on request. It is called ‘Weak AI, because it is not as strong as it is required to be.
- Artificial General Intelligence is known as Strong AI. Most of the robots fall into this category. Example of this is Pillo robot which answers all the questions related to the health of your family.
- Artificial Superhuman Intelligence has the capability to achieve or do anything that a human can do or even more than that. Example of ASI is Alpha 2 which is the first humanoid robot developed for the family. This robot has the capability to manage a smart home and can operate the things in your home. It can also notify about the weather conditions and tell interesting stories too.
Artificial Intelligence: Challenges Ahead
Artificial Intelligence works on science and algorithms. So it is difficult to understand for those people who don’t have a technical background.
Funds required to setup and implement AI are very high, so most of the organizations and business owners refrain from investing large amounts of money. Software malfunction is a serious problem faced by AI. When any software or hardware fails it is difficult to investigate what went wrong and which part of the software or hardware has failed. On the other hand, errors in tasks performed by humans can be traced. Security is a major concern. AI systems can cause damage if used maliciously. The Termination movie trilogy, for example, featured Skynet, a self-aware artificial intelligence that served as the trilogy’s main villain, battling humanity through its Terminator cyborgs. As Al development is speeding up, more robots or autonomous systems are getting created and replacing human labour which has serious implications of unemployment. When it comes to Indian start ups, Artificial Intelligence is a problematic space as Indian start ups lack access to large data sets which require mass storage and high performance computer. Another challenge faced by India in AI is absence of collaborative efforts between different stakeholders. For example, India has adopted electronic health record (EHR) policy which designed to share data between various hospital chains but it is still a work in progress as different hospital chains have adopted different methods and interpretations of digitizing record.AI techniques such as machine learning and deep learning require huge number of calculations to be made very quickly. This means the computers use a lot of processing power. Processing power determines the speed at which the computer can pull data from its memory and perform calculations. Artificial Intelligence is generally created to carry out specific tasks and to learn to become better and better at it only, multitasking is not yet possible.AI carries out complicated technical tasks which require skilled resources. The lack of skilled resources is also a disrupting factor in the overall development of the global market for artificial intelligence.AI can pose a threat to the society via autonomous weapons. These are weapons that AI system are programmed to use to kill. In the hands of the wrong person these weapons could easily cause mass casualties. This could even lead to an AI war.AI has the potential and power to be more intelligent than humans; we have no certain way of predicting how it will behave.
- Applications of Artificial Intelligence: Indian Perspective
In India AI is applied and going through testing times in the following sectors namely:
- Healthcare Sector
It is one of the most dynamic, yet challenging, sectors in India. Cancer screening and treatment is an area where AI provides tremendous scope for targeted large scale interventions. Other uses of AI in healthcare include training, diagnosis, decision making, treatment, research, early detection, keeping well, etc. It faces major challenges of quality, accessibility and affordability for a large section of the population.
- Agricultural Sector
AI will have significant global impact on agricultural productivity at all levels of the value chain. Some of the applications of Al in agriculture are soil health monitoring and restoration, crop health monitoring and providing real time advisories to farmers and increasing the share of price realization to producers.
- Infrastructural Sector
Smart mobility and transportation form the backbone of the modern economy due to interlinking of different sectors which is important for both domestic and international trades. AI introduces Intelligent transportation system sensors, CCTV cameras, automatic number plate recognition cameras, speed detection cameras, signalized pedestrian crossings, real time dynamic decisions on traffic flows such as lane monitoring, access to exits, toll pricing, community based parking which helps cars in traffic to collect data on vacant parking spaces and allocates cars to spaces such that the demand is always met; autonomous trucking, etc. As of now, AI faces challenges including congestion and road accidents, lack of public transportation infrastructure, need for sustainable transportation, etc.
- Education Sector
An effective education sector has the ability to transform a country through development of human resources and increased productivity. Content Technologies Inc. (CTI), an AI research and development company, develops AI that creates customized educational content. Some challenges faced by India in AI are low retention rates, poor learning outcomes, low adoption of existing technologies, etc.
Conclusion
In the words of Matthew Arnold “Faith in machinery is our besetting danger”. The sole purpose of invention of artificial intelligence is to make human lives easier and comfortable. Man has invented machines and machines have made human beings donkey before them. Now if emotional quotient to the machines along with the intelligence quotient becomes absolutely successful then the whole mankind will become slaves before the machines. However, as we invent and find new applications of artificial intelligence day by day, we must retain control on them. If it goes beyond human control, then we should be prepared for the greatest disaster ever known to mankind.
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