Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have dominated both tech and business stories this year. Industry heavyweights such as Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates have famously voiced their concern with blindly rushing into AI without thinking about the consequences.
AI has already proven that it has the power to outsmart humans. IBM Watson famously destroyed human opponents at a game of Jeopardy, and a Google computer beat the world champion of the Chinese board game, Go.
Google's AI team are taking no chances after revealing that they are developing a 'big red button' to switch off systems if they pose a threat to humans. In fact scientists at Google DeepMind and Oxford University have revealed their plan to prevent a doomsday scenario in their paper titled Safely Interruptible Agents.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction and tech fans could be forgiven for nearly choking on their cornflakes this morning after hearing about a very public disagreement between the two tech billionaires. The argument is probably a good reflection of how people on both sides of the aisle feel about heading into the foggy world of AI.
In one corner, we have Mark Zuckerberg who believes AI will massively improve the human condition. Some say he is more focused on his global traffic dominance and short-term profits than the fate of humanity. Whatever your opinion, he does represent a sanguine view of futuristic technologies such as AI.
In the other corner, we have Tesla's Elon Musk who seems to be more aware of the impact our actions might have on future generations. Musk appears concerned that once the Pandora's box has been cracked open, we could unwittingly be creating a dystopian future.
Zuckerberg landed the first punch in a Facebook Live broadcast when he said
"I think that people who are naysayers and kind of try to drum up these doomsday scenarios -- I just, I don't understand it. I think it's really negative and in some ways, I actually think it is pretty irresponsible." - Mark Zuckerberg
However, Elon Musk calmly retaliated by landing a virtual uppercut by tweeting "I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited."
Whether you side with Musk and believe that AI will represent humanity's “biggest existential threat” or think Zuckerberg is closer to the truth when he said, “AI is going to make our lives better”, your view is entirely subjective at this point.
However, given the range of opinions around this topic, should we be taking the future of AI more seriously than we do today?
I will tell you that big businesses with large volumes of data are falling over themselves trying to install machine learning and AI driven solutions. However, right now, many of these AI driven systems are also the source of our biggest frustrations as consumers.
Are businesses guilty of rushing into AI based solutions without thinking of the bigger picture? There are several examples of things going awry like the Chat bots claiming to be a real person, or the spread of fake news, or being told you are not eligible for a mortgage because a computer says so.
There are also an increasing number of stories about AI not being quite as smart as some would believe it to be, or how often algorithms are getting it wrong or being designed to deceive consumers. For every great tech story, there is a human story about creativity and emotional intelligence that a machine can never match.
Make no mistake the AI revolution is coming our way, and large corporations will harvest the benefits of cultivating their big data initiatives. Anything that will eliminate antiquated processes of the past and enable business efficiency can only be a giant leap forward.
However, the digital transformation of everything we know is not going to happen overnight. That does not mean we shouldn't be vigilant about how our actions today could affect future generations.
Mr. Zuckerberg may be accused by some of acting in the interests of his social media platform, and that is quite understandable. Beneath every noble statement resides a hidden interest – it is safe to assume that nowadays, unless one is Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela.
On the other hand, there are also the likes of Musk and Gates that are arguably looking beyond their own business interests.
I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do ask if we need more of us to question how advancements in technology are providing advantages for the few rather than the many?
Let’s build on Elon Musk’s point of view for a moment. I wonder if we should be concerned that a dystopian future awaits us on the horizon? Will the machines rise and turn on their masters?
AI is no longer merely a concept from a science fiction movie. The future is now. The reality is that businesses need to harness this new technology to secure a preemptive competitive advantage. Time-consuming, laborious and automatable tasks can be performed better and faster by machines that continuously learn, adapt and improve.
The current advances in technology have unexpected parallels with the industrial revolution that helped deliver new manufacturing processes. 200 years ago, the transition from an agricultural society to one based on the manufacture of goods and services dramatically increased the speed of progress.
Steel and iron replaced manual labor with mechanized mass production hundreds of years ago. That is not unlike the circumstances facing businesses today. The reality is that as old skills or roles slowly fade away, there will be a massive shortage of other skills and new roles relevant to the digital age.
Ultimately, we have a desire to use technology to change the world for the better in the same way that the industrial revolution changed the landscape of the world forever. The biggest problems surrounding market demand and real world needs could all be resolved by a new generation of AI hardware, software, and algorithms.
After years of collecting vast quantities of data, we are currently drowning in a sea of information. If self-learning and intelligent machines can turn this into actionable knowledge, then we are on the right path to progress. Upon closer inspection, the opportunities around climate modeling and complex disease analysis also illustrate how we should be excited rather than afraid of the possibilities.
The flip side of this is the understanding that no thing is entirely one thing. The risks versus rewards evaluation and the fact that researchers are talking about worst case scenarios should be a positive thing. I would be more concerned if the likes of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and IBM rushed in blindly without thinking about the consequences of their actions. Erring on the side of caution is a good thing, right?
Demis Hassabis is the man behind the AI research start-up, DeepMind, which he co-founded in 2010 with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman. DeepMind was bought by Google in 2014. Demis reassuringly told the UK's Guardian newspaper:
“I’ve read Frankenstein a few times. It’s important to keep these things in mind.” - Demis Hassabis, Co-founder of DeepMind
It would appear that all bases are being covered and we should refrain from entering panic mode.
The only question the paper does not answer is what would happen if the robots were to discover that we are trying to disable their access or shut them down? Maybe the self-aware machine could change the programming of the infamous Red Button. But that kind of crazy talk is confined to Hollywood movies, isn’t it? Let’s hope so for the sake of the human race.
Those of us that have been exasperated by Facebook's algorithm repeatedly showing posts from three days ago on their timelines will tell you that much of this technology is still in its infancy.
Although we are a long way to go before AI can live up to the hype, we should nevertheless be mindful of what could happen in a couple decades.
Despite the internet mêlée over the impact of AI between the two most powerful tech CEOs of our generation, I suspect like anything in life, the sweet spot is probably somewhere in the middle of these two contrasting opinions.
Are you nervous or optimistic about heading into a self-learning AI-centric world?