PEDESTRIAN.TV have partnered with Paramount Pictures to herald the release of GHOST IN THE SHELL and to tell you, humble reader, how artificial intelligence is going to change your bloody life. Will it be for the better? Have a read, mates.
The world of artificial intelligence has seen some monumental growth in recent years. A computer’s increasing ability to reason and solve problems will no doubt change the way humanity functions. Hopefully for the better, but potentially for the worse.
From humble beginnings in logistics and data mining, AI is now being used in a multitude of industries, as well as our homes to assist us puny humans in our everyday lives. Smart fridges can already order food when you’re running low and robot vacuum cleaners are cleaning up after your filthy ass, so what’s next?
Here’s where we’re headed in the world of artificial intelligence.
THEY’LL LEVEL-UP CONVENIENCE
Awwww yeah mates, your lives are gonna get way easy when AI comes to hang out. Forget Roombas, we’re talking robots that can clean your damn windows.
Driverless cars will soon carry your drunk ass home and drones will deliver all of your shopping, so your free time will actually become free time, devoid of annoying chores.
But that may not be such a good thing…
THEY’LL PROBABLY TAKE YOUR JOB
Yeah, here’s the thing. While there’s no doubt AI’s going to help you do a lot of amazing things, it also have the potential to take your job, particularly if what you do is very process-driven.
We’re not just talking blue collar work, either. Robots have been doing that for ages. AI really comes into play when we talk about data analysis or even jobs in the financial industry. They’re all on the chopping block.
That’s not entirely a bad thing, though. Assuming it doesn’t happen faster than we can prepare for it, it means humanity will be free to focus on more meaningful work.
Creativity, emotional intelligence, entrepreneurship and other human skills will be harder, if not, nearly impossible to replace. But it’s certainly a possibility.
But what of the workers that lose their jobs to robots? Some experts think we’ll need to implement a universal basic income – a standard wage for all people regardless of their employment status – to cope with the flood of unemployment. How else would we get by?
It may not even be a matter of if, but simply a matter of when.
THEY’LL REVOLUTIONISE HEALTHCARE
Sure, AI isn’t going to replace your doctor anytime soon, but it is going to help them tremendously.
IBM‘s Watson – the world’s smartest computer – has actually been put through medical school. Seriously.
By feeding it the same information a medical professional would digest, it can actually use AI and machine learning to diagnose an illness as a doctor would.
And that’s a shit-tonne of data, friends. We’re talking about around 250,000 research publications every year that Watson gobbles up, whereas a human being can only realistically digest 300, max.
That kind of diagnostic power will give doctors a huge leg-up when it comes to making the right call on treatment options for a sick patient.
We spoke to Telstra‘s chief scientist, Hugh Bradlow, about where he sees the intersection of health and AI leading us.
“I think one day we will be in a situation where you’ll effectively have your own personal physician watching you 24/7,” he said.
As wearables becomes better at reading our bio information, Hugh reckons it’ll be able to pick up problems before you even feel sick.
“My scenario is one day you’re sitting at home watching television and the ambulance arrives and takes you off to hospital and you’re feeling perfectly fine,” he said. “But it beats the alternative, which is to actually wait until you have the heart attack.”
Good call, Hugh. Good call.
THEY COULD END HUMANITY
If you’ve seen any of the Terminator movies, the name Skynet will probably ring a terrifying bell in your head.
Skynet was the name of the AI system that became self-aware and ultimately crushed humanity under its cold metallic feet.
Could that happen to us? Could our own AI suddenly realise its power and destroy us all? Renowned scientist Stephen Hawking reckons they could if we’re not careful.
“It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate,” he said in an interview with the BBC. “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”
Chilling stuff. At this stage it looks like our choices are either total domination or some kind of peaceful integration with AI. Could we become just like the world envisioned in Ghost in the Shell? Or will we all die at the hands of terminators?
Here’s hoping we can create an incredibly powerful AI without giving it the means to turn on us.
Photo: 2001: A Space Odyssey.
