Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a field of science concerned with building computers and machines that can reason, learn, act and analyze like replicating human intelligence. It is the simulations of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and act like humans. In simple words AI means the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. American computer scientist John McCarthy – the father of Artificial Intelligence — coined the term “artificial intelligence”.
AI applications (AI tools) are software programs that perform specific tasks and solve problems ranging from simple, repetitive tasks to complex, cognitive tasks requiring human-like intelligence. The AI aims to implement human intelligence in machines which can act like a human — understand, think, behave, and solve a problem. Digital computers carry out very complex tasks reaching the levels of human experts but can any program match full human flexibility?
Types of AI: Four primary AI types — reactive, limited memory, theory of mind, and self-aware — are currently available; other advance versions aren’t scientifically possible.
Usage of AI in Everyday Life: Users encounter Machine Learning (ML) algorithms and Natural Language Processing (NLP) in several everyday tasks. AI helps machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. The AI utilization to improve everyday life can be classified into two broad streams: i) Software/Methodology and ii) Embodied. AI facilitates the digital transformation of society and helping humans with everyday needs in following 20 areas.
1) Taxi Booking Apps like Uber employ intelligent algorithms for better allocation of drivers and route optimization for efficiency. 2) Voice Assistants like Siri, Google Home, and Alexa use AI-backed Voice User Interfaces (VUI) process to identify diseases through vocal biomarkers. 3) Chatbots are AI in action and evolved into sophisticated conversational agents like ChatGPT for an interactive and dynamic conversational experience. 4) Entertainment Streaming Apps like Netflix, Spotify, and Hulu provide seamless user experience through customized content and catalogs of music, movies, and TV series. 5) Personalized Marketing by personalized solutions helps predict advertisement’s performance and assist both prospects and retargeted customers.
6) Image Recognition through Google Lens beyond mere visual identification can recognize objects, landmarks, and texts in images. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology allows users to extract and interact with texts from images. 7) Social Media Algorithms of platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube curates content feed and ensures platform’s safety by identifying and filtering out inappropriate content. 8) Smart Input Keyboards provide auto-correction and language detection to correct mistakes and switch between languages. The “random forest” machine learning algorithm helps understand the context of the message. Typewise and Swiftkey apps operate 300 languages and dialects.
9) Fraud Detection in Banking assists online banking security. 10) Navigation and Travel Apps like Google Maps, Waze and Yottabytes can cross-check satellite images. MIT-developed navigation model tags road features in digital maps in real-time. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Graph Neural Networks (GNN) simplify regular updates in routes. 11) Gamified Therapy compute gamer’s mental fortitude while facing defeat and mitigates depression and anxiety. Virtual Reality (VR) headsets provide Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). 12) For Fall and Car Crash Detection, Apple Watch has accelerometers and gyroscope sensors. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) utilize sensors and cameras to monitor the vehicle’s surroundings.
13) Self-driving Vehicles (Autonomous Vehicle) innovate beyond cruise-control and blind-spot detection. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) teaches vehicles to operate independently. Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) provides real-time orientation via sensors. 14) Facial Recognition Technologies in smartphones have Face ID unlock feature. Generative Adversarial Neural Networks (GANN) reduces error in facial recognition software and pinpoints the unethical use of Deepfake technology. Emotion AI or Affective Computing gauges customer experience. Google Recorder app’s AI-driven speech recognition transcribes spoken words into text. Live Captions can generate real-time captions for videos, podcasts, and audio messages. Transcribe can convert audio files into written texts.
15) Security and Surveillance tasks get automated. 17) Email Filtering makes email communication easy, identifies and filters out spam, and categorizes emails into relevant folders with predictive typing and autocorrect features.18) AI Image Generators of Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) produce unique and engaging visuals for marketing materials or presentations. DALL-E of OpenAI generates unique and creative images. 19) Weather Prediction by meteorological models ensures accurate weather forecasts. Mobile apps like Dark Sky or AccuWeather offer hyper-localized, minute-by-minute forecasts on precipitation and temperature changes.
20) Internet of Things (IoT): The confluence of AI and IoT develops smarter home appliances requiring minimal human interference to operate. While IoT facilitates interaction with the internet, the AI enables these devices to learn from data. The IoT-enabling five broad steps are – create, communicate, aggregate, analyze and act. The ultimate step, “act”, is based on deep analysis provided by AI — the backbone of technological progress — for unlocking the potential of data aggregated by IoT devices via sensors.
Benefits: AI reduces the task time, enables multi-tasking, executes hitherto complex tasks, enhances the speed, precision and effectiveness of human efforts, eases workload, identifies fraudulent transactions, adopts fast and accurate credit scoring and operates 24×7 without interruption, breaks or downtime. AI detects fake news and disinformation by mining social media information, targeting sensational or alarming words and identifying online sources. OpenAI, Google, IBM, Microsoft, VIDIA, Amazon, Anthropic, and Anduril are top companies researching on AI to usher in ground-breaking innovations and AI applications in future. Accenture study reveals over 65% of globally incorporated outfits will invest in next six months.
Key Challenges: Transformative technologies (AI) are multifaceted and transcend national boundaries. In absence of global regulatory standards, coordinating with regulators across borders is a challenge. Three key regulating challenges of AI regulation are: (i) the unpredictable nature of business models that rely on AI, (ii) data privacy, security, ownership, and control, and (iii) the AI conundrum.
Regulatory Challenges to AI has three dimensions: Development, Risks and regulation, and Privacy concerns. Development of AI-driven autonomous weaponry poses security risks. AI analyses large volumes of personal data. Ethical concerns pertain to the challenges inherent to instilling moral and ethical values in AI systems. AI’s integration into regulatory affairs is transforming the pharmaceutical industry by improving efficiencies and reducing time to market new drugs.
The AI is hard to regulate but many AI developers feel the risks of AI aren’t significant enough to require rigorous oversight. They argue that AI regulation could stifle innovation and result in vague or overly complex rules that would be counter-productive during the high-speed pace of change.
Traditional regulatory structures are complex, fragmented, risk-averse, and slow-adjusting to shifting social circumstances, with overlapping authority whereas unicorn startups quickly grow global.
Regulatory challenges include challenging economic conditions, financial instability, lack of operational resilience, changing consumer demands and behaviours, and environmental and social concerns which are influencing regulatory agendas around the globe.
New governance frameworks, protocols, and policy systems — human-led, human-centred, nature-led and nature-centred — are needed for the new digital era to ensure all-inclusive and equitable benefits. Government policies must balance public interests, human dignity and identity, trust, nature preservation and climate change, and private sector interests like business disruptiveness and profits. Regulators face many challenges — rethinking traditional regulatory models, coordination problems, regulatory silos, and the robustness of outdated rules — to build flexible and dynamic regulatory models. A complex web of regulations would be costly for new entrants, leaving only large firms to rule.
The AI and machine learning has brought along disruptive changes to data economy like replacing human bankers while regulators struggle to provide guidelines to enable the financial industry to innovate and protect consumers from discrimination and bias.
There is no global agreement on data protection, and regulators around the globe take very different conflicting stances in regulating data within their national borders. Ethical considerations regarding the potential misuse of AI-generated images emphasize responsible development and usage.
European Efforts: Facing mindboggling threats, the European Parliament passed a resolution on a comprehensive European industrial policy on artificial intelligence and robotics!
The Future: From the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, robotics, 3D printing, nanotechnology, augmented and virtual reality, these cutting-edge revolutionary technologies are ushering us into a new digital era transforming every aspect of our lives. This will have far-reaching implications for the future of humanity.
A Statista study predicts the global AI market to grow 54 per cent every single year. Artificial general intelligence (AGI), or strong AI aims to duplicate human intellectual abilities, hence remains controversial. AI has a bright future. It is the “defining future technology” that will serve mankind well in the future by revolutionizing sectors including healthcare, banking, and transportation.
