Artificial Intelligence, the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. In the world today, the limits on new technological advances in artificial intelligence are endless, already able to surpass the capabilities of certain human tasks. Having the possession of such advanced technology allows us as humans to have a greater advantage than anyone ever before. Although, with great powers comes great dangers so we have to be careful how we use the new advances. There is an increase of concerns about the risk Artificial Intelligence poses to the human race today, after seeing the new advances. Above all, the rise of Artificial Intelligence has many potential opportunities but at the same time we need to be aware of the future countless types of dangers that it could hold for the human race the more we rely on it on a daily basis.
The first known sign of Artificial Intelligence appeared when the first computer was built in 1943. The computer was seen as a basic communication device, used to come in contact with others from a large distance away, with the little knowledge of the internet during this era, this was considered meeting human capabilities with little human effort. During the early 1900’s there was fast growing knowledge about the human brain, then scientists researching to see if there was any way to replicate the processing power into something completely controllable and commendable without rebel or fighting for control. Suddenly in 1915, there was a large break through, two unmanned circuited chess machines were able to beat a man named, Leonardo Torres, which was later classified as unmanned thinking. Following the break through, there was a large funding to a U.S. government project to pursue the building of a functional computer during WW2 while there was a small race taking place between the Germans and the United States to build the first unmanned, thinking, programmable computer. On the enemy lines there was a man named Konrad Zuse who was a young, German civil engineer, at the age of 28, who had invented the first programmable working computer, in his parent's basement in Berlin. Once Zuce told the Germans of his invention he knew he would be changing the world with his discovery. By the time the computer was known to the Americans there was the bombardment of Berlin which had destroyed the working, innovative computer. In the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s there were many other computers and prototypes of new technology in the Cold War race between the Americans and the Soviet Union. In 1975 there was the first portable computer called the IBM 5100, which sparked many new and well known companies today such as Apple. Apple created the next well known invention called the Apple 1. The Apple 1 was Apple's first product and was hand build by a close friend of Steve Jobs. The computer raised attention due to its capability to most television sets, even being brought into 65% of American homes. The first personal computer was built in 1981 by Compaq. The code name of the computer is often referred to as the Acorn, a 8088 processor, 16 KB of memory, which was expandable to 256 and utilized MS-DOS system. From there there was a spark in inventions. The first iPhone was built in 2000’s by Steve Jobs. Then there was the invention of expandible networks and multiple servers. Slowly leading us up to today. The ability to reach into our pockets and pull out a hundred dollar phone and send a message, call, or your location to people all around the world in a matter of milliseconds. As the scientists in the 40’s predicted, the human brains power will be replicated, it's just a matter of time and new inventions.
For only being around for 40 years so far humans are seeing the infancy of technology growth. Today humans are experiencing many types of artificial intelligence but we don't even realize it. As we are driving to work in the morning we will often have an alert pop up on our phones stating that traffic is heavy ahead and that we should find another route. This is google maps latest source of location data for smartphones, being able to locate accidents, construction, or other slowing incidents. Allowing the phone to pick the fastest path is already beyond the human capability of being able to predict the quickest time, in an area we have never even seen. The network feeding this ability is running off a program algorithm called the Dijkstra’s algorithm (an algorithm that uses basic algebra to quickly compare the distances from point A to point B with implications in the middle). Another well known form of artificial intelligence we are exposed to is autopilot in commercial flights. Surprisingly, artificial intelligence in autopilot dates back to as far as 1914 (depending on how you define autopilot). Even today, it is recorded that a average flight use of a Boeing 787 only requires a maximum of 10 minutes of being human controlled while the rest is controlled by a flight control system. In some of our houses we have the vacuuming robots called Roombas, an advanced artificial intelligence controlled vacuum. The roombas have to ability to learn as they continue to vacuum day by day the outline of your house and where the dirty spots are. The Roombas ability to learn over time on its own, with no other human control once in use allows it to be the most technologically advanced product on the household market. The most recent and biggest breakthrough was in Hong Kong the company Hanson Robotics have developed a robot named Sophia. Sophia is a human look alike that has voice recognition, adaptable learning and knows everything that is on the internet today. Sophia is connected to AI due to her ability to think on her own, and having no ties to human assistance or help.You are able to ask Sophia any question As the amount of AI bots such as Sophia, Roombas, and GPS maps rise, so will a different way of life.
As the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence rise day by day there will be many differences within our lives in just the next few years. We will see an uprising in human unemployment, having up to 45% of dangerous jobs that are taken over by Artificial Intelligence robots such as welding, bomb defusing, law enforcement, airplane pilots, database administrators or other time consuming, dangerous jobs. Having the ability of using robots for these jobs will save many human lives as well as affect the economy by having less humans at work. There will be less human deaths as well, having self driving cars will prevent human accidents and speed up travel to different places. There will be more advanced, lethal drones in foreign countries which will save many innocent lives that are at risk, as well as our own troops. Many factory and warehouse employers are looking for robots to take over human work as well, due to them being cheap with less chance of error, constant working, and faster than most humans. In space there will be an immense amount of new advances that will possibly save the human race. Set for the year 2020, Elon Musk and his company Space X (along with NASA) have set up a program called “Dart” (standing for Double Asteroid redirection test) in search to be able to use AI to target, detect and destroy oncoming space objects such as asteroids, large debris, or other possible life forms. Having such technology that can instantaneously decide what target to attack or what target would be most beneficial to kill sets the world up for an undecided future.
With mind blowing technology today, it is unimaginable to think of the advances in 50 years from now. It is predicted that the next 50 years there will be 60% of human jobs taken over a form of artificial intelligence robot or software. Google predicts to have homes managed by walking robots, capable of day to day chores such as dusting, vacuuming, dishes, mowing the lawn, and sweeping. Also, as the rise of deaths in hospitals vary between 44,000 and 98,000 due to surgical mistakes (or other staff error). With robots that can make make precise calculations and cuts when in procedure the amount of accidental deaths will quickly fall. There will also be a large fall in ubers, taxis, drivers, and pilots, as self driving cars and auto pilot make new and better advances toward smart driving. In 2017, 40,000 people died within the U.S. due to a car related accident. In 50 years with self driving cars, it is expected to drop 75%, but also get to your destination about 30% faster.
While having many pros to its use, AI has risen many worries about just how advanced it will get. As seen in movies such as, “Blade Runner”, “War Games”, or even “The Terminator”, AI had gained consciousness and was turning against humans. Those movies are not quite completely hoax either. With recent breakthroughs, many AI goals which people said were decades away, almost five years ago, have now been reached, making many researchers take serious the possibility of superintelligence in our lifetime. Many scientists think that superintelligent AI is not going to exhibit human emotions such as hate or love, and there is no reason they think that the robots would be violent. Instead, researchers think that there are two possible issues that make AI turn against all humans. The first possible scenario is believed that a weapon would be programed with AI and the system is programmed to kill a certain subject, then the weapon or robot does not stop killing due to its gain of consciousness. The second scenario would be that humans would program a robot to achieve a goal but the robot (or AI enhanced machine) follows a destructive path to completing its goal. This could consist of asking a car, with an AI driver, to take you the mall as fast as it possibly can then it gets pulled over for going too fast, which isn't what you really wanted. These scenarios all fall down to mechanical error or the AI enhanced robot gaining consciousness. It is still uncertain if a robot could gain full conscious due to researchers not being able to define what being conscious really means. Most philosophers agree that consciousness rests in the brain, but we don't fully recognize how we actually achieve it.
As you can tell, with the countless opportunities that AI has to offer to the human race there are also many challenges and dangers to come along with it. AI has a long trail of history dating as far back as 1943 and is still making breakthroughs today. From AI traffic suggestions to super AI human like bots, there are all forms of our future forming. We will start to see more advanced types of technology slowly taking over the old and changing our day to day lives. We will soon see differences in our military, society, schools, hospitals, homes, other countries, and even more. In best case scenario we will hopefully see AI solve countless problems of humanity, and help us to overcome the great, difficult challenges of the future.