What is AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is machine or application which carries out a task that requires some degree of intelligence when carried out by a human being. Artificial intelligence involves the automation of intelligent behavior. These tasks could include
- The use of language
- Carrying out a mathematical calculation or function
- Recognising a person’s face
- The ability to operate machinery, such as a car, an airplane or a train
- Analysing data to predict the outcome of a future event, such as whether forecasting
The impact of AI
People often associate AI with science fiction, fantasy and robots. Numerous films and books fuel this association. However, AI goes way beyond. It covers an ever-increasing number of areas, such as
- autonomous (driverless) vehicles
- artificial limb technology
- drones, used to carry out dangerous or unpleasant tasks such as bomb disposal, welding, or entering nuclear disaster areas
- climate change predictions
- medical procedures, such as eye operations where extreme precision is required.
- criminal justice system
- advertising and use of data
How AI will Impact the society, the economy and the environment?
As a result of increasing automation over the next few decades, the human race will need to consider the impacts that AI will have on society, the economy and the environment. So should we all be worried?
Below are some of the developments and impacts that are currently expected to be seen in the near future.
Research has predicted that, by 2030, millions of jobs will be lost globally and millions of people will need to retrain or switch jobs – all caused by the inevitable advances in AI. The most likely jobs to be lost are those doing medium- and low-skilled work, but high-skilled jobs (such as hospital technicians, architects, engineers) are also at risk. This could lead to civil unrest with large numbers of young people out of work, with few or no employment prospects, unless they have a sought-after skill.
History has shown, however, that previous technological advances all ended up creating a net increase in jobs. As automation takes over, jobs on the factory floor are lost, but production becomes much faster and more efficient, thus requiring an increase in the number people doing tasks that the automation process cannot yet do, such as quality control, test driving new vehicles and so on. Technology creates new jobs which are generally more interesting to humans than the manual jobs which are lost. However, history does not always repeat itself, so we need to prepare ourselves for a large reduction in employment and think about how to redistribute wealth so that the overall impact of AI will be positive.
It is predicted that, eventually, 99% of all jobs could be eliminated since the increase in the use of AI is exponential – competition between countries and companies to expand their economies will continue to fuel this growth.
An increase in AI will leave people with more time to pursue their hobbies and have a better lifestyle. Previous industrial revolutions have led to steep changes in the economies of countries that embrace the new technology. Being left behind is not an economic option but is it a good environmental option?
Positive impact of artificial intelligence on society
Improvements in AI technology can have a positive impact on the environment. Scientists now have more information than ever about what affects the environment. AI can help by finding patterns and interconnections within the thousands of data sets. This helps scientists make informed predictions about the environment and potential climate change. Since this analysis is very complex, the use of AI systems can speed up this process incredibly and allow the human race to take action much faster than they could by present methods.
Potential uses of artificial intelligence
- AI can help us to conserve natural resources (for example, improve the conservation of water supplies).
- Detection of pollution in the air and in the seas using AI is much more accurate, allowing scientists to pinpoint the source(s) of pollution more accurately and much faster.
- In the future it could be possible to combine weather forecasting and AI to allow for better predictions about renewable energy resources needed for the next few days. This would lead to a more precise automated renewable energy forecast using solar, tide, thermal and wind energy generation.
- AI would allow us to learn from nature’s ecosystems by monitoring and modelling.