Futuristic Approach of Artificial Intelligence

Futuristic Approach of Artificial Intelligence. Written by Arpit Chaudhary (PrO_RaZe) for my University Class. I have uploaded the same here.

ABSTRACT 

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most important field of study in the present world and also is being used in many tech machines. It has just started and already has such a huge impact on the world, and it is only getting better and better over time. Soon there will be a time when AI machines will be as smart as human beings and will be able to do everything a human being can. And there will be a time when they will surpass the human intellect, being much smarter than us that we won’t be able to comprehend what they are doing. It will either be very good for us or very bad. Our aim is to make AI safe. The future is the age of Artificial Intelligence. 

KEYWORDS: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Machines, Robots, Computers, Intellect, Narrow AI, General AI, Super AI, Technological Singularity, Humanity, Civilization 

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INTRODUCTION 

In this paper I will be talking about what is Artificial Intelligence, its use right now and what it will be like in the upcoming future as our technology gets better and AI improves. Artificial Intelligence was first coined by Alan Turing, a Mathematician. During World War II he simply asked a simple question, “Can Machines Think?” and later wrote a paper named “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” in 1950 (What is Artificial Intelligence? How Does AI Work? | Built In, 2020). The purpose of Artificial Intelligence is to replicate human like intelligence into machines so that they can think on their own and make decisions without any human input at all.  Artificial Intelligence is classified into three types: Narrow Artificial Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence and Artificial Superintelligence. In our present world and everything we have achieved so far with technology, we see the practical uses of Narrow AI which is also known as Weak AI. I am going to describe each type of AI in short and in a simplified manner. So basically: 

Narrow AI (or Weak AI) is a type of Artificial Intelligence which focuses on a single task and does operations on it. Like recommending you videos on Youtube on what you should watch or what product you should buy on Amazon based on your recent purchasing and search activity. (O'Carroll, 2020) 

General AI is a type of Artificial Intelligence when machines are able to completely replicate humans in terms of thinking and do whatever a human mind can basically do. It is human-like intelligence in a computer or machine. (O'Carroll, 2020) 

Super AI is when AI surpasses humans in terms of intelligence and now machines possess intellect far greater than humans, this is the stage when singularity happens. I will talk about singularity later. When machines become much smarter than humans, there will be a point when we will not be able to comprehend what they are doing or how they are doing it. (O'Carroll, 2020) 

Just a couple year ago and before, technology experts were predicting that we will achieve Artificial General Intelligence in around mid of this century or around 2050 but this year it is now predicted that machines will become smarter than humans in just about 5 years from now (Musk, 2020). The future seems to be all about the uses of AI and even today it is being used in a lot of aspects of our daily life. In this paper I will talk all about that, and also the harm AI can do to us in the future and become a threat to humanity. You probably have watched a lot of movies where machines take over humanity and do harm to us rather than do good, well it can really happen and this is why when we are developing AI, we will have to do it in the right way and we cannot go wrong with this. There is a lot of research and development going on this all over the world. I will be talking about the present and futuristic approach of AI and why it can be our biggest invention ever and also our last invention, if we achieve Artificial Superintelligence.  

Artificial Intelligence at present (Narrow AI) at present world is widely used in medical field, in weather forecasting and prediction, on Internet apps and sites like Amazon, Flipkart (e-commerce), Facebook and Youtube (for recommending content to the user and learning from user experience), on our smartphones as personal assistants like Siri or Google Assistant, in self driving and autonomous vehicles (for example Tesla vehicles), in security and surveillance, video streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime, on various phone apps, marketing and advertising sector and much more. These are just some of the examples of the applications of AI. (Where is Artificial Intelligence Used Today? | Becoming Human, 2019) You can see that it is everywhere and is making our lives much more better and convenient.  

The best thing about an AI is that it gets better with time, the more data it collects the more it learns and evolves as it updates. Some people confuse Artificial Intelligence with Machine Learning. These are two different terms.  

Machine learning basically means to program a computer or machine in such a way that it learns a skill or knowledge and improve over time by experience. We program a machine on what to do. (Sharma, 2018) 

Artificial Intelligence means to train or program computers or machine so that they develop the ability to understand and think about various things like we humans do. The scope of AI is to create an intelligence for the machines like us. (Sharma, 2018) 

There is a lot to know and talk about AI and these are just some of the things, in the next sections of this paper I will be discussing more about AI and especially the possibilities of the future with it. 

OBJECTIVES 

- To Study the Futuristic Approach of Artificial Intelligence 

- To Understand the current Impact & State of AI in the Present World 

- To Study the Dangers AI can Possess in Future 

- To Study the Positive Things AI can do for Humanity and the World  

 

 

 

 

RESEARCH QUESTIONS 

Q1: What is Artificial Intelligence & Different Types of AI. 

Q2: What is the Future of AI as Predicted by Current Progress of Technology and Research?  

Q3: Why AI can be a Threat to Humanity and the World? 

Q4: When AI is likely to Surpass Humans in terms of Intellect?  

Q5: How are we facing the Challenges and Planning to make AI safe for us in the Future? 

Q6: Where are We Using Artificial Intelligence Technology in the Present and How is it working out so far for us? 

 

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 

Q1: What is Artificial Intelligence & Different Types of AI. 

Q2: What is the Future of AI as Predicted by Current Progress of Technology and Research?  

Q3: Why AI can be a Threat to Humanity and the World? 

Q4: When AI is likely to Surpass Humans in terms of Intellect?  

Q5: How are we facing the Challenges and Planning to make AI safe for us in the Future? 

Q6: Where are We Using Artificial Intelligence Technology in the Present and How is it working out so far for us? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DATA COLLECTED, ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION 

In our Introduction of this research, we have talked about the basic of Artificial Intelligence, its current applications, types and future implications. In this section of the paper, we will talk about these things more deeply and analyze it. As stated before, invention of AI is one of the greatest thing humanity has ever done and well is currently developing it right now. It’s still in the baby phase and still able to do a lot of things for us all over the world.  

Lets talk about the current state and impact of AI through some of the everyday examples. Basically where AI is being used: (Faggella, 2020) 

* Google Maps, it’s something almost everyone is using now these days to get to the places we want. But Google does not only provide maps and GPS, it is more than that. It gathers location data from the smartphones and uses that data to analyze things like traffic movement, provide faster routes, give time to reach a place, tell about accidents on construction on a particular way and much more! Artificial Intelligence plays a very important role here. 

* Apps like Uber, Ola, Lyft etc. can tell you about the price of ride, match you with other passengers going along way, give waiting time etc. is also because of Machine Learning and AI.  

* Shopping sites like Amazon uses AI to recommend users products they are most likely to buy by analyzing search history and it keeps getting better.  

* There are AI Autopilot system in many commercial flights which are very good at their job.  

* Now in 2020 there are many self-driving cars that can be seen in developed countries, most popular which is Tesla and their auto pilot system is amazing. Through research it is estimated that in the near future, self-driving cars will be able to reduce accidents up to 90%, rides will be more efficient which will also reduce the number of cars on road, and traffic light system will get smarter also reducing traffic wait time. It will be possible through AI and there’s more to that!  

* AI is used in Emails for spam filters and also for categorizing your emails in a smart way, so that the emails that are important or valuable to you are in your primary inbox and everything else that is useless does not spam you.  

* In Banking and Personal Finance sector, Artificial Intelligence is used by banks for mobile check deposits through smartphone apps and online portals. This requires a lot of security too which is managed by AI and ML itself. It also prevents Fraud transactions and gets to know about suspicious activities. All this is not possible by humans because the volume at which these things are done is very large. There’s more to this like in providing credit cards or loans and at what terms and score etc.  

* AI is used in social networking sites like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube (it’s social too) and other sites. For example when you upload a photo with your friend, Facebook instantly identifies your friend and tells if you want to tag him. AI is also used to personalize your feed and to give you the best posts that you would like and the most important ones. It suggests you people to add or follow that you may know, and these sites are designed in a way that you spend more and more time on it. There are more little things in these sites where AI and ML is being used and you never notice it like face filters, recommending you emojis, stories you may like, facial recognition, voice to text translation etc.. All this is designed to make your experience better. Youtube recommends you the best videos that you may watch and its algorithm really works amazing, talking with personal experience. The videos it suggests makes me want to spend more and more time on the app and site. It’s part of AI and ML.  

* Here is another example, you may have searched for a show on google to know about it, and later when you opened your Instagram explore page you started seeing posts of the show you actually searched on google. This has happened to me. Or like you searched for a product on google and started seeing ads of it on various websites. Your search data is used with AI to recommend you all this.  

* Smart Personal Assistants is something we all know of because it comes with every smartphone now and our PC, also other gadgets like smart portable speakers. Some of these are Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa. You can use your voice to talk with these smart assistants and they would respond you, and now they are very smart and clever. Not like Iron Man’s JARVIS which is more like General AI but they are still good. You can have basic conversation with them, ask about the weather, they will tell you about time, your schedules, news of the day, play music for you, set alarm, book things for you, write messages, tell you jokes, create notes, search, order things and so on.  

* AI is used in medical sector, security sector, various industries for manufacturing different things, in research, in space organizations, in military, and pretty much everything now which has some digital use. It is everywhere now, and it is becoming better and better.  

So yeah these were some of the present day examples of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. All this comes under the Narrow AI category of AI.  

The next stage of Artificial Intelligence in General AI and Super AI which is we are yet to reach, years ago it was estimated that we would reach at that point in somewhere mid of this century which is pretty far way. General Artificial Intelligence is when AI becomes as intelligent as humans and is able to do everything a human being can do and think on our levels.  

It is not like an AGI will be smart as one human being, but more like every human being on the planet. Just like a narrow AI can beat every human on the task it is designed to perform at. AI is very accurate at its task, a human can fail many times to give the desired result. But a human has an intellect to think from building a basic dirt house to space rockets. That’s AGI beating us on every level. Currently it is purely science fiction that we see in the movies where AI takes over the world and destroys humanity. Terminator is a popular movie series in this case. But many experts think that it is going to come true soon enough, where we will reach AGI level and it may also end humanity. If it does not and becomes good for us, that it will change the world very fast. Elon Musk who is a businessman and engineer and one of my favorite person. He owns multiple companies and one of them is OpenAI. It is an artificial intelligence research lab which is developing safe AI for humans. They are developing a text based AI named GPT-3 and it was released to some of the developers for testing, and the results were mind blowing. What GPT-3 can do is that it can analyze the entire internet and then give you valuable human like information. It can write articles, poems, summaries, quotes, write programs, develop apps and websites etc. You can give it a little information and then it will complete it, and it is so accurate that its like written by a human and not a machine. It is revolutionizing Artificial Intelligence (Marr, 2020). Elon Musk says that within the next 5 years, AI will surpass human level of intelligence (Musk, 2020). Now this prediction is too close than what it was predicted before, which was mid of this century. Elon says that when it will surpass humans, it is not going to take over the world and end it but things will be unstable and weird. Just think, with our level of intellect we have created so many things and developed. When something comes that is even smarter than us, what it can do is something we can’t imagine. We have developed so much in the last 100 years, and now it seems the progress is going to get a huge boost if things turn out to be good.  

Artificial General Intelligence and Artificial Super Intelligence are closely related. There are possibilities that at day one we can have AGI and at day two it will become ASI. Because AGI is when AI is as smart as humans and can think just like a human can do at multiple tasks, and ASI is when it surpasses humans too. So what Elon has predicted is when AI passes us in terms of intelligence.  

What this means that the AI will be smarter than us in everything we do, from basic thinking and framing to math, medicine, various hobbies, emotions, relationships, sports, art, science, research, communication, developing technology, and well basically everything. This is too much of a science fiction and for some it may sound really impossible. What it can do is something we can’t even think of right now and to what extent it can progress is something we really cannot imagine. If it turns out to be good, it can help us to achieve every goal human has ever wanted, from world peace, equality to ending world hunger and giving everyone what they deserve for a great life. It can make our life a paradise, or many fear it will bring the end of us.  

This is one of the reasons why experts consider ASI to be humanity’s last invention and also greatest. This progress also may lead to something known as the technological singularity which is purely hypothetical. What it means that when it happens, the technology progresses at such a high rate that it cannot be controlled or be reversed anymore. It will result in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. Singularity is most likely not going to happen in the next 5 years or even 10 years, but it may happen before the mid of this century if all the research and predictions from it come true (Shanahan, 2015). Or it may never happen. But if it happens, we will literally create new gods. I think it is okay to say that.  

Now I am mentioning some of the dangers AI can do for us and something a lot of people are worried about (Marr, 2018). 

* Autonomous Weapons is something I want to mention first, the entire world spends trillions to strengthen their military and come up with new technology of weapons so that they stay the strongest and protect their homeland. There’s still war going on at many places of the world. When AI mixes with weapons, things are different. Autonomous weapon is when AI is programmed to kill people and it will be better than humans of course and many fear that soon nuclear weapons will be powered by AI. President Vladimir Putin says that whoever owns the AI weapons race will become the ruler of the world. The most concerning part is when these weapons will develop a mind on their own and start to think denying human orders, it can do a lot of harm to us and will be hard to stop or maybe impossible. We may have Terminator movie like extinction.  

* Used in Social Manipulation. Almost everyone of us is now connected to some form of social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc. We spend a lot of time on these sites and now many of us use it for gathering news and knowing about certain things. These sites work on autonomous AI algorithms and it can manipulate on what we see. It’s pretty effective at targeting to whatever audience it wants since it is all online and we share data with it. It can spread propaganda and change the perception of users.  

* AI can do social grading and invade privacy. We know that AI is used in facial recognition software and our smartphones track our movements to wherever we go. We also share so many things on the social media and have personal files saved online. All this can be misused. AI knows a lot about us.  

* AI can be used in discrimination since we share so many things with it. The information that we share can be used against us.   

These were some of the dangers of AI.  

The most important challenge we are facing in developing a full AGI or ASI is that it is safe for us in the future and does not mess everything up. I think it is the most important thing of all, and also that it is used for the benefit of humanity only, and not to create wars or rule the world. This was it for this section. Next comes the conclusion.  

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION 

I have talked about everything I wanted to in this paper, from what is AI, to its types and applications to its future. I think we are living at a very great time where we will get to witness something that will change the humanity forever. For the good or for the bad, but it is going to be huge. We are progressing faster and faster and it is going to get even more boost as AI develops and takes our responsibilities in progressing the civilization. AI is also a very big challenge for us and we all should work together to make it safe and beneficial for us. Personally I am very excited about its future development because I believe in progressing and changing for the better and I have hope.