What Is AI, Why It Matters And How It's Changing The World? Everything To Know

Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. In recent years, the AI trend has taken over social media platforms and has become the latest viral craze. From passing medical and law exams to delivering speeches, AI has evolved so much that it even converses with users and offers solutions to their problems.  However, the advancement in technology has also brought a threat to many existing jobs and their utility in the future. Now, with so many changes coming at such a rapid pace, here's everything to know about AI, from history to the future of artificial intelligence. 

What is artificial intelligence? 

Artificial intelligence is the ability of a computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks that are commonly associated with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason. Using this technology, computers can be trained to accomplish specific tasks by processing large amounts of data and recognising patterns in the data. AI tasks can also include anything from picking out objects in a visual scene to knowing how to frame a sentence or even predicting stock price movements, as per Live Science. 

History of artificial intelligence

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, British mathematician Alan Turing did the earliest theoretical work on AI in the 1940s and the first AI programs were developed in the early 1950s. 

In the 1960s, the US Department of Defence took an interest in this type of work and began training computers to mimic basic human reasoning. The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) completed street mapping projects in the 1970s. DARPA produced intelligent personal assistants in 2003, long before Siri or Alexa were household names.

Since the first documented success of an AI-computed program, AI has come a long way. AI development has seen major societal changes. From voice recognition devices such as Alexa to driverless cars, AI has evolved to provide many specific benefits in every industry.

Why is AI important? 

AI aims to provide machines with similar learning processing and analysis capabilities as humans, making it a useful counterpart to people in everyday life. AI is able to interpret and sort data at scale, solve complicated problems and automate various tasks simultaneously, which in turn save time and fill in operational gaps missed by humans. 

In today's world, AI is used in almost every industry - from healthcare and finance to manufacturing and education. There are smartphones with AI assistants, e-commerce platforms with recommendation systems and vehicles with autonomous driving abilities. AI also helps protect people by piloting fraud detection systems online and robots for dangerous jobs, as well as leading research in healthcare and climate initiatives.

How will AI change the world? 

AI could be the most transformative technology in the history of mankind. It has the potential to revolutionise industries, enhance human capabilities and solve complex challenges. It can be used to develop new drugs, optimise global supply chains and create exciting new art. With AI, machines will be able to think, learn and act the same way as humans do, blurring the line between organic and machine intelligence. Experts believe that this could pave the way for increased automation and problem-solving capabilities in medicine, transportation and more. 

However, the increasing use of AI also raises concerns about heightened job loss, widespread disinformation and loss of privacy. And questions persist about the potential for AI to outpace human understanding and intelligence which could lead to unforeseeable risks and possible moral dilemmas.

Risks and dangers of AI

Despite reshaping numerous industries in positive ways, AI still has flaws that leave room for concern. From deepfakes and misinformation to automated weapons, experts have pointed out a few potential risks of AI. 

The spread of deepfakes threatens to blur the lines between fiction and reality, leaving the general public to question what's real and what isn't. And if people are unable to identify deepfakes, the impact of misinformation could be dangerous to individuals and entire countries alike.

The use of AI in automated weapons also poses a major threat to countries and their general populations. While automated weapons systems are already deadly, they also fail to discriminate between soldiers and civilians. Letting AI fall into the wrong hands could lead to irresponsible use and the deployment of weapons that put larger groups of people at risk.  

Will AI replace humans? 

AI might not be coming for your jobs just yet. A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that AI might still be expensive for companies to replace human workers. The research looked into the practicalities of replacing human labour with AI in jobs in the United States where computer vision - a type of AI that derives information from images and video - was employed. They found that the majority of the time, it would be cheaper for firms to continue to use human workers for some specific tasks rather than using AI. 

However, experts have stated that AI might disrupt the job market - now and in future. In the short run, there will be workers whose jobs are lost or whose responsibilities get changed because of AI. In the future, it may cost less to develop AI systems, potentially speeding up how quickly companies opt to use them. But it will likely take many years for those costs to decrease to a level where these AI systems can be deployed by companies on a broad level.