Artificial intelligence means we will have robots–who will work like superhumans and might also serve us tea. This is what I thought about AI a few years ago.
When people said AI would lead to unemployment, it felt like AI would take “their job, not ours.” We thought creativity was deeply human. Today, computers are already far more creative than human beings. From writing to designing fashion to composing music, they are doing it all. Things are changing so fast that we fear becoming outdated and replaced.
Today, our mistakes make us human. Our imperfections make us more accurate than AI. A grammatical error, writing in human language, an unplanned stroke on a canvas, a lump in your throat while singing–these nuances of a writer, singer, or painter put a stamp of realness in the AI world.
If we put our insecurities aside, we can see the bigger picture. Using AI for writing or creating images is for kids; what we need to be scared of is not AI but the person who uses it. AI doesn’t have any intelligence of its own.
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The American military is using AI to enhance its defence sector. If an AI tool makes a mistake, it can kill people. Who do we blame? The one who clicked on a device, the one who invested money, or the person who invented the tech? We have no guidelines to follow.
Meanwhile, political parties are bringing dead people back for election campaigns such as South Indian political leader Karunanidhi, who died in 2018, was resurrected using artificial intelligence (AI) for such public events. This can lead to misguiding people.
We assume that humans have biases and AI won’t, but AI has its own biases. Most research and developments in this sector took place in the USA, and as a result, many AIs have an inherent bias towards Asians. There are times when it doesn’t identify black women. We just don’t fit the data.
Author Yuval Noah Harari said, “The last thing left for humans is empathy and emotional intelligence. It can’t be automated. They are a human thing. We want people to understand how we feel, but humans often fail at this because we’re too busy with our own emotions. Because computers are not distracted by their feelings, machines might win over humans even in this domain. “What happens when your refrigerator understands your feelings better than your boyfriend?”
The only thing we have and machines don’t is consciousness. We solve problems using our feelings. Over the past 70 years, there has been development in computer intelligence—but zero development in computer consciousness. We don’t just want solutions to problems; we want a connection with someone who can feel what we’re feeling. We want to build a relationship–personal or professional.
As now, we have an uncertain future–more questions, less answers. When AI takes over, the only skillset humans can work on is building empathy and consciousness, and yes, making more mistakes because that’s what makes us human.
