The concept of AI does not exist in 2023, as everyone has heard of it in some form or another.The term was officially coined in 1956 at a conference held at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. AI stands for "artificial intelligence," and it is a branch of computer science that allows a computer programme to mimic human-level intelligence, conscience thought, and self-awareness.AI is basically a computer system programmed to perform tasks requiring human intelligence.
Some of the tasks include language translation, decision-making, and machine vision. The reasons for the creation of AI are numerous, ranging from the sake of technological advancement to making human activities easier. There was no much progress on the development of AI initially but recently it only seems to get better. In 1969, the first general-purpose robot was built, and it acted based on purpose, not instruction. 1997 recorded another AI known as "Deep Blue" by IBM, and it defeated a world champion at chess. Recent AI such as smart homes and virtual assistants such as the well-known "Alexa" are becoming more common these days, with the most recent of all that launched in December 2022 Chat GPT, which some consider a demonstration of AI's near-perfectionism.
AI is being adopted in society solely for its benefits: 24/7 availability, speed, and efficiency -- all of which make human activities easier.However, due to the comfort it brings and its human qualities of learning, reasoning, and self-correcting, AI is slowly replacing humans, especially in the aspect of employment, posing a problem for the future. The human-like nature of AI makes it useful in interactive sectors like customer care and teaching; its efficacy is also useful in the banking sector, amongst others.
With this, there are high chances of humans being replaced by AI in a couple of years, leading to massive unemployment. The invention of Watson, another AI by IBM, that answers questions and in the process is able to perform some medical purposes accurately, raises the question: is there a need for doctors? What is to become of the education sector? Google’s driverless cars and Tesla’s Autopilot definitely give taxi drivers a run for their money. In essence, if AI can finally learn to do it all and replace humans, what purpose are humans meant to serve? The main question is: Is AI not gradually replacing the very people it is meant to serve? If it is, is the creation of more AI the right way to go?
AI is definitely a game changer in the tech world, and now it's about to bring changes to the world as we know it. Whether those changes are negative or positive is what is unknown.