Artificial Intelligence, Future Computing machinery, and the Future of Work

 Artificial intelligence has been around for decades. Researchers and inventors have been tinkering with artificial intelligence for a long time. Today, artificial intelligence systems are used all over the world in everything from search-and-rescue operations to robotic assistance. While artificial intelligence has many applications, one area that it's growing quickly in is video games. This is because human emotionality and intelligence go hand-in-hand.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as "the ability to reason and interact with a computer in a way that would be expected to occur given the knowledge, data, and reasoning of a human." Humans display some degree of this ability on a regular basis. For instance, when you walk into a grocery store and place your order, the store associate may indicate a current inventory by indicating what product is in which aisle, and then asking you if you want to see a specific item. Similarly, a search-and-rescue team in the event of a rescue operation might ask a victim if he or she has any information about a call coming in.

Strong AI, sometimes referred to as artificial intelligence, is almost always defined as a system that is able to take in, process, and sometimes even predict future outcomes of particular activities or events. Humans can do this, to a point. Strong AI, artificially intelligent software that operates within the framework of artificial general intelligence, will be able to take in and process large amounts of data, organizing it in such a way that it can be quickly and accurately analyzed. This sort of system may be able to predict, for example, that an earthquake will happen in a certain area one day and it will happen the next day. However, humans will still need to be present in order to make sure the prediction is correct.

Narrow artificial intelligence systems are those that operate on very narrow tasks. They may be used to perform incredibly difficult tasks such as guessing the actual weight and height of a particular person. However, they may also be used to perform extremely simple tasks, such as determining whether or not a particular phone number belongs to a listed land line or cell phone. A narrow artificial intelligence system can accomplish these tasks much faster than a human would, and they could, in some cases, beat a top player at their own game.

Many researchers are excited about the potential of artificial intelligence. However, many others are concerned that these systems could make artificial intelligence systems too intelligent to be trusted with large sums of money. Some fear that we will soon have human machines that can hack into government computers or use advanced technology to engage in cyber crimes. In other words, that the government will create super-intelligent machines that will be able to rule the world using unethical methods.

The potential for abuse by such machine is real, and Google is already facing some tough questions over the ethical issues of its ranking system, known as Googleplex. To avoid such controversies, Google has hired three IT professors to work on developing artificial intelligence, and it's recently been revealed that one of those three scientists is trying to create a machine learning engine which will be able to beat the current world champion chess player. Will this new artificial intelligence machine be as good at chess as grandmasters? Only time will tell.

On the other hand, if the Google machine learning engine finds a method for beating the most intelligent human players at chess, then who would stop them? Right now, Google already has many billions of dollars. It could easily put a machine on every desk in the world and simply dictate what information it needs. And just like the Chinese communist government did with computers 30 years ago, a future artificial intelligence system could also takeover much of human commerce. Imagine how much sales that would increase.

But is this the sort of future we should be worrying about? Well, consider the implications of artificial intelligence in everyday life. Will self-driving cars replace human drivers? Will robotic servants do menial tasks instead of washing our clothes? Can artificial intelligence software to write a paper, or design clothes, or even bake a cake? If so, will humanity have to hire more people just to get these jobs done?