By Justin Geldof, Technology Director at Newton Europe
AI has certainly become the buzzword dominating the technology landscape. It promises to change the way we work and improve our relationship and engagement with our employees and our customers. All while being able to make a lot of money by using it. It’s a compelling proposition and it’s no surprise that in 2022, over 15% of UK businesses adopted AI to support at least one part of their operations.
First imagined by John McCarthy in 1956, AI has a much longer history then you might expect. For the first thirty years the ambitions of researchers and developers were constrained by the computing power that was available. However, Moores Law held true and by the early nineties sufficient power was available to allow IBM to create Deep Blue, a chess AI that was able to defeat Gary Kasparov in 1997. This scenario has played out many times since then, our ambitions being constrained by available computational power, Moores Law allows it to catch up and then our ambitions grow again.
That brings us to today. AI now seems to be everywhere. It is used across most industries and in most countries. Most businesses are feeling pressure to use it. Many vendors are selling hopes and dreams of limitless profits and limitless potential. In this environment, do we have anything to worry about?
We’ve all read the cautionary tales, the fear that AI is taking the industry’s jobs, the worry that in years to come, humans will be at the mercy of these systems and it’s all just a ticking time bomb. But how true is all of this?
Former chief business officer at Google X and whiz on all things AI, Mo Gawdat, explored this conundrum particularly well in a recent episode of the Newton Talks podcast. Within a technology industry framework, the basic understanding is that AI is a tool, a means to an end. It’s used to do something more efficiently, to do something safer, to make a bigger profit. However, AI is much more capable than most people realise and its potential is virtually unlimited. Mo argues that thinking about AI as a means to an end is wrong and we should consider AI like we would an infant child trying to learn and navigate a complex world. He argues that this is the only way we will unleash the potential of AI and ensure a peaceful coexistence between AI and us.
Navigating AI’s teething problems
Taking Mo’s analogy of a learning child, we can view AI in a much more nuanced way. And, in particular, identify the opportunities for nurturing AI and having the most positive impact on its growth journey. The analogy works on so many levels. AI is learning from all of us – we are it’s role models. For those readers with school aged children, I’m sure you have seen the difference between how your children learn and develop when they have a fantastic teacher and when they have a bad teacher. We all need to be the fantastic teachers for AI.
We’re already using AI in some really exciting and valuable ways – and we often don’t even know we’re using it! Recent research by Tech Jury revealed that 40% of adults rely on AI voice assistants to search daily with voice-controlled communication being the most relied-on tool when searching the web. For most people a voice assistant is something that you tell what to do. However, for a lot of people it is their connection to the world. There are really exciting examples of voice assistants reducing loneliness of people who live alone and allowing people with early-stage dementia to stay in their home for longer.
And let’s not forget the recent AI bot that’s been overtaking our newsfeed – ChatGPT! Whilst it may not always give the most accurate responses, users are able to use the system to draft their client emails, get a cover letter written in seconds for a job application and even writing music and playing games like tic-tac-toe. The bot’s ability to replicate human speech is causing many people to fear its intelligence but, how do we tend to interact with these systems?
It’s worth questioning how we, as humans, tend to speak to these AI systems. When using your Alexa, have you ever thought to add a ‘please’ when you bark an order?
One way that we can all be safely involved in the growth of AI and interact with it responsibly, can be as simple as using manners. Beyond this, training people to implement AI effectively; encouraging individuals to see AI as a young child that requires support and engaging people to interact as collaborators with AI systems, is a great place to start. And, if we do this, we’re sure to be as clued up as we really can be, about its growth and development.
How worried do we need to be about AI’s growth?
The reality is that yes, there is fear around AI and its future impact, but our real concern should be, what could happen if we don’t nurture and support AI in the right way? Rather than hypothesising over whether AI will surpass human intelligence (the short answer is it definitely will!) or whether AI will ultimately replace human jobs (which is ultimately unlikely), embracing its opportunity with this element of care, is a more helpful attitude.
We’re already seeing AI become an increasingly valuable tool and safety is one way that AI is helping to protect human life. Systems are now being created that can take on dangerous tasks such as changing motorway signs or physical lane closures on smart motorways that remove this need for manual human involvement.
And beyond the safety and time-saving reality of AI, there are already increasing opportunities for AI to be future-gazing, for example, it’s already helping some organisations use past crimes to predict where future crimes may occur.
Further, we need AI to solve the biggest problems the world is facing. Climate change, increasing inequality, global crime and corruption. Utopian dreams such as world peace, universal health and equality will remain dreams without the use of AI.
However, I’m concerned about the path we are on now. I’ve said we all have a role to develop and nurture AI. Today, that role is being done by a small group of non-diverse people in the tech industry. You may have heard the term tech bro. It refers to the hypermasculine man employed in the tech industry and stereotypically located in Silicon Valley. These are the people who are shaping AI and the future we will live in. That scares me. These are the people that have given us “highly accurate” facial recognition AI that in reality only recognises two-thirds of black womens faces (http://gendershades.org/overview.html). These are the people who deployed a recruitment AI screening algorithm that turned out to not like women candidates as it was trained on the CVs of current employees who were mainly white men.
We cannot let this industry develop and nurture AI. It needs a global effort that brings the best of humanity in all forms, that celebrates and highlights our diversity and that shows just how good we can be. Without that AI will embody the lack of diversity and limited way of thinking embodied by the tech industry.
Where once AI was used to simply lift heavy objects in a factory, it’s now a central part of our everyday lives with exciting developments such as self-driving cars, crime prediction and creating ground-breaking immersive retail environments. And, whether the future of AI is rosy or rocky, its potential for growth and human value cannot be avoided. As this technology develops, so should our own nurture and support for its endless possibility.
Uma Rajagopal has been managing the posting of content for multiple platforms since 2021, including Global Banking & Finance Review, Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune. Her role ensures that content is published accurately and efficiently across these diverse publications.