Living in a too smart
world
By Dr Laila Abdel Aal
Alghalban
Professor of
linguistics & Chairperson of the Department of English
Faculty of Arts
Kafrelsheikh University
A traumatizing
experience
It was about fifteen
years ago when I watched Steven Spielberg's masterpiece Artificial Intelligence (AI). It was a traumatizing experience. The humanoid robot boy who was
manufactured to be the adopted son of a couple whose real son was in
cryo-statsis is no longer welcome in the family after the recovery of their
human son. I cannot forget the scene
when the boy was abandoned by "his mom" in the forest. I cannot
forget his bitter tears and heartbreaking begging not to leave him there.
The dividing lines between real humans and realistic robots are sometimes
blurred. I remember the tense, bewildering feelings and thoughts the movie
sparked in me about our future and the terrifying storm of questions that has
hit me ever since. "Could we really develop machines that can feel, think,
do incredible tasks and even kill us?" I thought. "What is left for
humanity? And is it any more acceptable for humans to be replaced by machines
at this alarming rate ?"
Freaky headlines
The iconic movie
and the questions it triggers pop in my mind every time I come across a news
story on AI: "The world's first robot designed to carry out unbiased job
interviews", " Robot news presenter causes a stir on
Russian TV", "Meet Ai-Da, the world’s first robot artist to
stage an exhibition", " A never-ending stream of AI art goes up for
auction", " Is artificial
intelligence set to become art's next medium?" , "World's first robot
artist can sketch people from sight."These have been a sample of the
freakiest headlines I spotted in the
last few months.
A few questions
In citing the above
headlines, I would like to ask you a few questions. How would you feel if you were interviewed by a robot
or saw a self-driving car passing next to you? Would you become relaxed? How
would you feel if you were a climber or a hiker and you lost connection to the
world because of an avalanche or wild fire, then you started losing hope, yet
all of a sudden, a drone spotted you and luckily you were rescued? Do you know that a sketch painted by an AI
humanoid robot artist is auctioned in the famous and prestigious Christi Hall in London and sold at an
incredible price, close to the price of a masterpiece by Van Gogh or Goya? And
do you know that AI-based policing work is increasingly involved in prosecution,
sentencing and upgrading legal system procedures and services?
Artificial Intelligence is almost in
everything around us. What does AI mean, then? It simply means developing
machines or computer programmes that are
capable of doing tasks requiring intelligence, through simulating human
cognitive abilities . Your smart phone
is the handiest example: the phone camera, processors, security
code, facial and voice recognition, social media apps, navigation, etc. Self-driving cars, delivery robots, medical
robots, surveillance and monitoring,
smart factories, smart universities, smart home devices such as robots
tidying up rooms, etc. are currently gathering mounting momentum. Algorithms
-computer mathematical formulae - are increasingly used to make everyday
decisions about our lives. Robots do repetitive tasks so efficiently. But are
they equally good at sophisticated and more creative ones?
Hyper-creative tasks
Ai-Da is the world’s
first robot artist to stage an exhibition. The mind blowing (AI) machine can
sketch a portrait by sight, walk, talk, self-learn and hold a pencil or
brush. Her sophisticated, highly
abstract creativity is not predictable and is instituting a new genre of
shattered light abstraction art. Automated copywriting programmes are also now
writing cheap, inventive adverts as well
as basic news reports. Programmers feed the algorithms with a plenty of adverts
to come up with creative, human-like copies. AI is also used to analyze
customer service and customer satisfaction survey results. Surprisingly, Russian state news channel
Rossiya 24 has introduced Alex, the robot presenter for some of its bulletins.
Alex has humanoid facial expressions and neck movements, and has generated conflicting
reactions from the audience.
Humans and technology
In their quest to
control the world , maximize the use of resources, fight the surrounding
dangers, humans have uniquely made use of tools. The industrial revolution
enhanced our limited capabilities beyond comprehension at the time. However, it
is the digital revolution that has and would continue to have the paramount,
unprecedented impact on humanity. The
gap between virtual and real realities is getting narrower than ever. Virtual
reality is used in learning, visiting museums, camping and touring the human
body organs. Augmented reality technology allows us to see real reality more
clearly and comprehensively in 3D views through apps and tools like glasses.
They work magnificently in many
industries , professions, games, shopping, GPS and other human activities. More
interestingly, AI devices are gingerly being implanted into the human body or
on the skin, using simple, DIY "surgeries" or techniques to help open
doors without the need to carry keys, go shopping without money or credit
cards, show identity without the need for passports, store personal medical
information, and help people with
disabilities to walk, hear, see and touch.
Digital technology grant humans unparalleled powers and redesign human bodies to adept to the
post human or transhuman age, where humans and technology intertwined. This
brings in serious bioethical considerations societies must address to stop
humanity from heading to the point of no
return.
.
Legitimate fears
The latest AI machines
do self-learning and self-training. Sometimes they outperform programmers. This
is called Machine learning. The
excessive reliance on AI algorithms can lead to fatal risk of bias and error.
We would turn into slaves to the machines, letting them to decide almost
everything for us. In the criminal system and policing work, for instance,
especially in interrogation techniques, prosecutions and sentencing might
come up with some legitimate fears that the data used to feed algorithms might
be biased towards or against some people. Loss of jobs is a nightmare to so
many people in the future. However, AI
is a tool and in order to aspire for a more humane future, humans should come
first: empowering vulnerable groups and individuals, respecting human heritage and addressing
ethical concerns. Finally, let us trust our innate instinct for survival in
combating future threats.
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