Apocalypse or Paradise?

The Future and Artificial

Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is a challenge to define, but it's universally recognized as machines and computers
exhibiting human-like qualities and cognitive functions. The AI featured in blockbuster movies such as the
Terminator series is a realistic possibility within the next 20 to 30 years, but renowned scientists and innovators
such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk abhor the thought of truly transcendent AI and see its arrival as the
end of the human race. Despite this looming threat, realistically attainable levels of AI hold the key to
improving the quality of life for humanity and reversing our impact on the environment.

The superseding of humanity by self-improving AI is called "the singularity" and a surprising consensus of
experts agree that reaching this point would make the human race obsolete as the AI took steps to achieve goals
and utilize resources. With humans requiring a high amount of resources, stressing the planet and the AI's
environment, we pose a threat, and the AI would theoretically take steps to eliminate humanity. Swedish
philosopher Nick Bostrom envisions the world under the rule of AI as miraculous and technologically
"awesome," but with no humans to enjoy the result. According to Stephen Hawking, the development of full
artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. "(The AI) would take off on its own and re-design
itself at an ever-increasing rate."

Is this an inevitable development? Technology is the secret weapon allowing companies and even whole
countries to get tactical and economic advantages, so controls on limiting AI are impossible to administer
worldwide. The singularity is a threat, but it's still just a scientific theory. Consider that AI must reach a level of
cognitive awareness and learning capability similar to that of a human mind, and we're not even close to
achieving those types of artificial intelligence. Defining AI as a technology that can "think" by solving
problems and serving as a rational agent makes the doomsday scenarios seem far-fetched. AI is constantly
improving, of course, but the potential to serve and even save humanity is a realistic result.

Subfields of AI allow for immediate and substantial changes to the way humanity applies technology to
previously unsolvable problems. "Machine learning" is a subfield that Microsoft applies to the prediction of
weather. Traditional forecasting methods are wildly inconsistent, and since the weather holds the key to
planetary crises such as global warming or damaging weather events like hurricanes, applying learning AI to
weather problems can yield a measurable impact.

Machine learning methods are superior to the way meteorologists use trends and physical simulations. AI
doesn't consider assumptive information about the way nature acts, and it has the horsepower to involve
substantial data sets. Improving predictive weather modeling would save time, money, and lives. Consider that
increasing the accuracy of wind forecasts allows pilots to optimize flight times, or getting more accurate
renderings of a superstorm allows more time and focus as it pertains to evacuation, preparation, and outreach.

Climate change theory involves extensive and far-reaching data, and feeding this into improved AI systems that
may one day exist creates hope that AI can precisely target the trend of global warming and develop a strategy
can be uncovered to reverse or stop its effects.
Another planet-saving impact is the ability for AI to "sort" between organisms and pollutants, such as oil.
Software already exists with a nascent form of this technology, allowing for more efficient cleaning of the air
by identifying noxious gasses and removing them before they reach the atmosphere.

The weather is a matter of global importance, so self-driving cars and other autonomous forms of transportation
may seem like mere convenience by comparison. However, automobile crashes are one of the biggest blights
on humanity. The CDC cites "injury" as the leading cause of death of people under the age of 44. Over 38,000
people were killed in car crashes last yearthe biggest increase in the automobile accident rate in 50 years,
according to Newsweek.

Autonomous transport requires a significant level of AI. Today, we rely on sensors and GPS technology to
create the self-driving concept cars seen on the news. In the future, AI-powered vehicles could create data
models allowing for truly safe and efficient self-driving. This evolution of AI would save thousands of lives
each year and reduce emissions across the board thanks to more efficient and error-free travel routing.

The self-driving vehicle doesn't have to be limited to planet EarthNASA already relies on rovers, probes, and
shuttles that don't require an immediate human presence. The harsh environments of space throw all kinds of
unforgiving obstacles at research and exploration missions. AI could assist with protecting those assets by
improving their ability to sense and evade barriers that could otherwise destroy the craft or probe. Increased AI
capability could alert human astronauts of problems much faster, averting potential disasters and improving the
chances for mission success on manned missions.

AI-powered automation isn't limited to transportation. Thousands of tasks can be replaced by smarter AI-
powered machines, creating error-free replication and allowing humans to invest the saved time in more critical
endeavors. Something as simple as a robot that can clean an entire house each day creates a few extra hours
each week for the owner.

Despite its advantages, automation becomes one of the significant concerns over implementing AI in the future.
Even now, self-checkout lines and industrial robots (which are not AI, of course) foreshadow a future where
smarter, more powerful machines replace humans in thousands of jobs. A recent projection by the World
Economic Forum states that robots and AI will kill 5.1 million jobs over the next five years. No one truly
knows what kind of employment, if any, will evolve as AI becomes more powerful and more autonomous. The
ability to maintain and improve itself is a signature trait of highly advanced AI, so it's unclear how the
economy will look at the end of this evolution.

Thus far, AI innovations show the potential to prevent injury and death, but AI has a distinct and crucial role in
the cutting edge of the healthcare industry. A future with more substantial AI creates the potential for radically
altering the quality of life and life expectancy for humans.

The Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is pioneering the use of software applications capable of probing the heart
and detecting conditions such as heart attacks before they even occur, giving new meaning to the term
preventative medicine.

Robotics in surgery is a cutting edge phenomenon in top hospitals across the world, and AI improvements
would empower them to perform repeatable perfect surgeries in the future. The world of healthcare is ripe with
overwhelming data sets, creating an environment where human error is a leading cause of death. AI could
conceivably eliminate those deaths. AI can delve so deep into the data that it could diagnose conditions that
human doctors miss and build predictive patterns to reshape the way we view preventative care. Imagine a
world where AI tags your health file as a cancer risk, and the resulting PET scan catches the disease months or
years before discovery would typically occur.

The innovations in weather, automation, and healthcare are just a few examples of a near-future where AI
advances create substantial progress and a distinct impact on our species. Some of the top AI researchers in the
world envision even more valuable and intimate changes to humanity as the tech evolves.

Shimon Whiteson, Yoky Matsuoka, and Thomas Dietterich, who are all renowned researchers, agree that AI
has the potential to alter our perception of physical humanity. Deitterich envisions a future where the old and
feeble can walk with an AI-powered exoskeleton, and senses such as sight and hearing could remain perfect for
a lifetime thanks to AI advances. AI-powered prosthetic limbs would join AI with our physical body, and
Whiteson goes even further saying that the human race is already becoming tightly bound to computers and
that we will eventually become a single, cognitive unit. In the future, we could all be cyborgs and our brains
could have access to the Internetit sounds like science fiction, but the top minds in AI research all believe a
future like this isn't only possible, but inevitable.

The problem-solving potential of highly-evolved AI is virtually limitless. Computers can already work with
unfathomable amounts of data, but true AI could understand the data, with context. Google is like a hive mind
that spits out pages based on the question or query that you're inputting into the search bar, but what if a
computer could answer the question directly thanks to its ability to understand all of the data at its disposal?
Tools like that magnify the potential to solve the toughest problems that the world faces, both today and in the
future.

The cost for all of this AI computing power might end up being our ability to connect with each other. The
lamenting of social media as a tool that distances us as people instead of bringing us together is essentially a
trope at this point. Researcher Hector Geffner sees AI as being detrimental to socialization. AI machines could
adjust to humans much better than humans adapt to each other, and in the future, we may all prefer to be
around our AI-powered machines rather than other people.

Artificial intelligence is already ushering in a new age of safety, innovation, and problem-solving, but as it
continues to gain momentum, we're running up against the threat of economic disaster, desocialization, or even
worse, total destruction at the hands of our new computer overlords. With some researchers theorizing that we
could reach the singularity sometime in the 2030's, the human race won't have to wait long to see just how far
artificial intelligence can take usor if it will even bother taking us along at all.