Artificial Intelligence: Promises & Menace

25 Jun Artificial Intelligence: Promises & Menace

(GS PAPER-3, ROBOTICS, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

SOURCE- INDIAN EXPRESS)

Context:

• Historically, Technology competition has been a prime aspect of geopolitics. In this day and age, it can be growing reflected in geopolitical battles between the US and China.
• One such technological competition can be easily seen in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

What is Artificial Intelligence:

• Artificial intelligence is that activity dedicated to making machines intelligent or to make them think and behave like humans. AI is emerging as one technology of particular significance because of its role as an accelerator, its changeability, and its huge applicability.
• However, AI can also be used for a host of enviable purposes — generating misinformation, criminal activity, and encroaching upon individual privacy, or inducing technological unemployment.
• Therefore, as the global community looks to leverage the promises of AI, they should also tackle similar challenges when it comes to the development and deployment of AI and develop a human-centric approach to AI.

Promises of Artificial Intelligence(AI):

1. Some Primary advantages of AI are as follows:

• AI urges down the time taken to perform a task.
• It facilitates multitasking and eases the workload for existing resources.
• AI enables the implementation of hitherto complex tasks without significant cost outlays.
• AI operates 24×7 without obstruction or breaks and has no downtime.
• AI supplements the capabilities of differently-abled individuals.
• AI has huge market potential, it can be used across industries.
• AI facilitates decision-making by pushing the process faster and smarter.

2. 360-degree Effect:  

• Based on these benefits, AI can be used in many other positive ways — to foster innovation, increase efficiency, improve development, facilitate growth and enhance the consumer experience.
• For India, AI deployment will be fastened closely to inclusive growth and its growth trajectory, with potentially positive implications for agriculture, health, and education, and various other sectors.
• Driven by recent breakthroughs in machine learning,  Big data, etc AI is a good trendsetter for the possibilities and challenges of international cooperation and coexistence on emerging technologies.

Menace Associated With AI

1.Promoting Prejudices and Inequalities: 

• It shouldn’t be buried that AI systems are created by humans, who can be prejudiced and judgemental.
• Thus, AI can promote biases and inequalities, if the initial training of the AI algorithms is biased.
• For example, it can create  AI facial recognition and surveillance technology to discriminate against people of color and minorities.

   2. Comprising Privacy: 

• AI systems learn by properly analyzing huge volumes of data and they keep adapting by continuous modeling of interaction data and user feedback.
• Thus, with the rapidly growing use of AI, the right to privacy can be under threat due to unauthorized access to one’s activity data.

  3.Disproportionate Power and Control:

•  Technology giants are infusing heavily with respect to artificial intelligence, both at the scientific/engineering and also at the commercial and product development and growth level.
• These big players have an unparalleled advantage when compared to any aspiring competitor out there which is a symptom of a data-oligarchic society.

 4.Technological Unemployment: 

• AI companies are manufacturing intelligent machines that perform tasks typically carried out by low-income workers.
• For example self-service kiosks to disseminate cashiers, fruit-picking robots to replace field workers, etc.
• These days, the day is not far when many desk jobs will also be fringe out by AI, such as accountants, financial traders, and middle managers, etc.

Way Forward:

• International Collaboration: Given that various governments have only recently settled AI policies, and in some cases are still preparing them, international cooperation is still very much a work in progress. in the setting of benchmarks at the multilateral level.
• Building flexible Supply Chains: Beyond talent and intelligence, additional challenges like securing the necessary and important infrastructure; ensuring resilient supply chains, alignment on standards, good governance, ensuring critical minerals and other raw materials required for the development and growth of the necessary physical infrastructure, needs to be addressed.
• Right Steps Taken: AI technological revolution is bringing great opportunities and juncture for prosperity and growth — but it has to be ensured that the technology will be made and used in the right direction. In this scenario, some steps are already being put in place in different parts of the world, like Explainable AI (XAI) and the European Union GDPR -General  Data Protection Regulation.

Conclusion:

• The critical decisions and solutions made in the coming future could have transformative effects and consequences for international cooperation on AI, which, in turn, could decisively shape and figure the contours of what some have described and discussed as the Fourth Industrial Revolution 4.0.

-Khyati Khare

Download Daily Current Affairs of 25th June 2021