AI: Dispelling fallacy

It all began few years back when the term AI became popular among common people, although its implementation had been there since long before we heard of it, such as, in weather forecast. Nonetheless, this technology became famous carrying this very name Artificial Intelligence, and the very reason for its popularity, more than education and industry was something absolutely different — Fiction. As the term was in a wide-spread use, technocrats came up with claims that this technology was going to become a major threat to the mankind in future times. However, this is majorly a notion with a really very low probability of coming true in exact manner as stated by several experts. Yet, there are heated debates over this arrival of Artificial Intelligence being a threat. Let’s look at them and get some clarification over these presumptions.

AI will seize our jobs

The fact that the latest AI applications and websites like ChatGPT, Midjourney, etc. are generating high quality outputs has become a rising concern. ‘Why will someone purchase a sketch when AI can generate it at low cost’, ‘Why should somebody pay for a book when AI can provide with all the information’… Such questions threaten the artists like painters, musicians, poets, novelists, and many more.

It’s a matter of seeing that number of jobs that AIs will provide will mostly be more than the number of jobs they take. Afterall, someone will always be required to keep the AI up to date, feed it with necessary data, ensure its precision and human intelligence transcending.

Apart from that, can an AI seize an idea from a writer’s mind? Can it steal a visualization from a painter? Of-course not. What people create is always unique and in demand. A book lover will never prefer reading an AI’s story over a book from a reputed author. No one will like to have an AI generated image for the wall over a handmade painting.

AI will overtake the world

As movies began to depict robots and machines, they brought with themselves the fear of getting the technology out of control. The notion became prominent that one day Artificial Intelligence will begin to feed itself with inappropriate data, as a result, would lead to human race’s extinction. Unfortunately, this concept of fiction which is usually adapted as a plot is considered to be real without giving enough thought.

In the film Avengers: Age of Ultron, filmmakers had shown the worst possible outcome of working on such technologies. The film particularly featured various AIs, which in ways were more or less similar to the real-world tech like AI assistants, unlike the other movies. The film had a huge impact on the thinking of people.

In this movie, the expert system Ultron, as soon as it was created, explored the internet to dive into the history of the human race, and found the major threat to the world to be humans themselves, whom he saw to be the only menace to peace of the world. The bot had his own definition of peace.

Apart from fiction, if we consider a real world scenarios, few years back a frightening incident took place.

“Facebook recently shut down two of its AI robots named Alice & Bob after they started talking to each other in a language they made up,” reads a post shared on July 18 by the Facebook group Scary Stories & Urban Legends.

The incident turned out to be alarming as it provoked suspicion that the bots might learn something harmful without even letting the company be aware of it. Later, it was publicized that the bots weren’t actually shut down. Rather, it was taken into account that the AIs needed to be trained to make correct English usage.

Whether Artificial Intelligence is a boon to this world or a curse, remains the part of the debate. Who knows if a cyber maestro might create an out-of-control expert system which might ruin several advancements and safety severely. In that case, the world is in need of other digital connoisseurs who can counter such an attack if in case it is unfortunately there.