Challenges of artificial intelligence!

By M.Y.Siddiqui

Artificial intelligence, a never before new frontier of technology is emerging worldwide in a big way, which will disrupt traditional voice and video   communications as well as produce mindboggling data that will change all round human conduct in all walks of life. Be it trade, commerce, industry, businesses, education, justice delivery, health care, life style, travel, tour, hospitality sector, road traffic, safety of vehicles, and may disrupt altogether existing technology, pattern of innovations, research and development. It will affect wokings of media world enormously as well. The way Big Tech and governments worldwide are pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence, there are worries about future of humans. Could humans be fast approaching the point when machines do not need human inputs any more?

Skeptics are apprehensive about massive disruption in the employment system and loss of jobs. Others think otherwise with optimism that it will throw up avenues of massive economic upsurge and employment with all round prosperity and development of people everywhere. This will help reduce social, economic and educational inequalities of people. However, excitement apart, there is growing concerns among experts that artificial technology could exacerbate inequities, dividing the world. Artificial intelligence runs the risks of amplifying biases that already exist. People are witnessing quite literally that prejudice is being programmed into the technologies that are being deployed in our communities. And the biases must be addressed.

The social justice leaders in the USA have shared examples of predictive policing tools, harmful to people of colour. According to a report in MIT Technology Review, there are broadly two types of such tools currently in use in the USA. The first, tools that use location based algorithms to predict where crime is likely to happen. The second, tools that draw on data about people like their age or gender, to predict who may get involved in crime. A study by accounting behemoth Deloitte, smart technologies like artificial intelligence could help cities reduce crime by 30 to 40 percent. But such technologies are a real serious cause for alarm, in addressing racism against anti-people racism within the criminal justice system, already.

When these technologies are doled out, they are assumed to be neutral, but that is just not the case. People have seen cases where people are locked up because of faulty racial scan. They just do not see our faces in the same way, they don’t recognize our features. There is so much bias and discrimination of stereotypes that are being normalized through these technologies. Yet another concerns voiced by experts about artificial technologies may exacerbate the global digital divide. Countries need to accelerate their development in artificial intelligence being producer rather than a consumer. Creating opportunities for up skilling can lessen this divide, and that governments alone cannot take this on; civil society organizations should step in.

However, people foresee a lurking danger to women across the globe given the patriarchy under which they are subjected to inequality, looked down upon, commoditized, suppressed, subjected to misogyny, blackmailed, exploited etc. Artificial intelligence most likely may endanger women’s personal dignity, individual honour, social respect, break marriages, dent marriage prospects, blackmail them by cloning their original personae, profile true to the original figure, voice, gesture, posture and so on unlike the existing technology of photo shopping software, which does not capture true aspects. Some workable built-in safeguards may have to be created to protect women.

Counter perspective reveals that while the race to artificial intelligence supremacy on the world stage is dependent on funding availability, its consumption worldwide is narrowing the digital divide. Most nations have better access now to connectivity, like cloud computing and storage services are becoming less expensive, and that data is becoming more widely available. On the front of artificial intelligence production, however, some nations still lag far behind. Yet, countries around the world are enthralled about artificial intelligence potential today far more than they were when mobile technologies first bloomed or when the Internet itself was created. In part, because of the enormous economic impact that artificial intelligence could have, but also because of the direct geopolitical applications.

 The race to develop artificial intelligence technologies is expected to be multi-layered multi dynamic initiatives under launch worldwide. Seems it is not going to be a straightforward horse race, this person or that person, this country or that country. It is going to be a full stack with participants and competition at each layer of the stack. With full-fledged artificial technology, all existing human norms in all established walks of human conducts will be disrupted and the world may not be the same again!

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