In 2019 everyone is talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI), yet many of us have no clue what it really means. Before we beat ourselves up for feeling like we’re living under a rock, we should really think about why the majority of us can’t get our heads around AI.
It largely comes down to our lack of ability to communicate our ideas in a clear relatable way. The tech and science industry live in an overly complicated bubble, where their unrelatable jargon puts up a barrier between us.
Let’s burst this bubble and learn how we can use AI to make our lives better.
What is Artificial Intelligence and why WE ALL should pay more attention to it
Even though artificial intelligence appears to be a relatively new concept, the term was first coined back in 1956 by John McCarthy. AI has been increasingly impacting our lives ever since. In simple terms, artificial intelligence is a set of algorithms that enhance user experience. Humans use these algorithms to teach machines to perform tasks as a human would, and over the years with these algorithms, machines have proven to do many tasks even better than humans.
Artificial intelligence can be divided into two sections General AI and Narrow AI. General AI can solve a variety of problems like humans, whereas narrow AI very successfully solves specific tasks. Underneath AI there are two powerful subsets that have been all the rage in the tech world: Machine Learning and Deep learning.
Machine learning is a subset of AI that can be simply defined as a method to train machines to learn. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning which takes learning to another level by using robust algorithms to actually mimic the human brain.
To put AI into perspective let’s look at Siri, Netflix, and Tesla as examples. They are using advanced AI strategies to deliver us excellent user experience. Siri, Apple’s assistant uses machine learning to learn how to best respond to our voiced requests. Netflix uses algorithms to predict what users want to see based on their search history and preference. Finally, Tesla cars might be the coolest advancement people are talking about today. Thanks to AI these cars have autopilot features and incredible accurate predictive abilities and they are currently delving deeper into AI techniques. to bring fully self-driving cars which are said to be safer behind the wheel than humans.
When we take a minute to look around us we can see how AI has been a crucial tool to improve our livelihood. When AI is used to improve our society as a whole we can make great advancements for us to be healthier, happier, more efficient and more creative people. Understanding the power of AI and how to use it is vital for us as a whole so we can take control of our society’s future. The more we learn about AI, the more power we have as people to use it for good and the less we have to fear from it.
Why the fear of AI is the real villain to our future society
There are many concerns on where our future is going and a lot of controversy towards AI’s part in that. The main fears people have are:
– Those robots will take over the world and we’ll lose total control.
– That it’s only controlled by a small number of people who have the knowledge, power, and money to do what they want with AI. One relevant example today are politician’s ability to use people’s information in politically corrupt ways, as well as send out fake news to the people and blocking any other information they don’t approve of.
– That it’s going to take over people’s jobs and leave many unemployed.
– That it’s making us more and more obsessed and dependant on technology, causing us to be lazy and also isolating ourselves from our connections with each other and our environment.
While all of these fears are viable, our real fear should be our ignorance of how AI has improved our lives and how we can use AI to continue to do so. This fear is the real culprit harming society, and once we as a whole become more knowledgeable on how to use AI to better our lives we can prevent these so-called fears from happening.
Artificial intelligence is not just for techies and computer nerds
AI seems like a term that only software engineers and computer nerds can fully understand. In reality, AI isn’t just robots and computer science, and it’s time for us users to take it more seriously.
AI is already impacting our lives without our control, once we take control we can ensure that it impacts our lives for good. Even though many people are arguing that AI is making the newer generation lazier and lonelier, I believe that we are the ones who need to gain better discipline and control over our devices and use AI to improve these factors that are so important to us.
A recent example that’s taking over memes on Instagram is how creepy it is that ads start popping up for things that you don’t even remember searching. It gets to the point that you feel like your devices are complete stalkers. All of a sudden your computer knows you better than your family does. Before we think of this as a bad thing, let’s think of the benefits.
Letting technology know more about how we tick can and has been doing wonders for us.
- Health: We have been making groundbreaking discoveries in the medical field, continuously improving our ability to fight against disease and illness.
- Productivity: We have so many tools that have been created based on how humans work best, which has made us more productive than ever in the workforce.
- Creativity: AI has given us more time and more freedom to explore new ways to do things, allowing us to be more innovative. With AI taking away routine jobs and dangerous jobs we are able to make more creative jobs so that we can thrive in our new world.
- Happiness: When we learn to use AI as a tool to help us, we get to live our most authentic lives.
Let’s work together with Artificial Intelligence to have a more authentic life
Instead of worrying about the mysteries behind AI and how it can be “detrimental” to our society, we need to open our eyes to how we can use AI to make our lives better off. The biggest hurdle is tackling the fear we have to adapt our new AI future.
Once we understand how we can use AI for good, we can make AI more personal instead of a tool that’s only for the tech industry or the rich. When we become more educated of the powers of AI we give ourselves the power to live our lives the way we want to. The world is constantly changing do you want to sit back and let other people decide how our future will be?
Learning how to use AI as a tool in your life will give you more control over your technology and change the way we interact with them. This control will truly be a breath of fresh air for all generations. Let’s choose to use AI to empower ourselves to put what matters to us most first.
