Artificial intelligence will be the defining tech of the 21st century
Artificial
intelligence (AI) could make every company and employee smarter, faster, and
more productive
Over
the last 30 years, consumers have reaped the benefits of dramatic technological
advances. In many countries, most people now have in their pockets a personal
computer more powerful than the mainframes of the 1980s. The Atari 800XL
computer that I developed games on when I was in high school was powered by a
microprocessor with 3,500 transistors; the computer running on my iPhone today
has two billion transistors. Back then, a gigabyte of storage cost $100,000 and
was the size of a refrigerator; today it’s basically free and is measured in
millimeters.
Even
with these massive gains, we can expect still faster progress as the entire
planet—people and things—becomes connected. Already, five billion people have
access to a mobile device, and more than three billion people can access the
Internet. In the coming years, 50 billion things—from light bulbs to
refrigerators, roads, clothing, and more—will be connected to the Internet as
well.
Every
generation or so, emerging technologies converge, and something revolutionary
occurs. For example, a maturing Internet, affordable bandwidth and
file-compression, and Apple’s iconic iPhone enabled companies such as Uber,
Airbnb, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to redefine the mobile-customer
experience.Now we are on the cusp of another major convergence: big data,
machine learning, and increased computing power will soon make artificial
intelligence, or AI, ubiquitous. AI follows Albert Einstein’s dictum that
genius renders simplicity from complexity. So, as the world itself becomes more
complex, AI will become the defining technology of the 21st century, just as
the microprocessor was in the 20th century.
Consumers
already encounter AI on a daily basis. Google uses machine learning to
auto-complete search queries and often accurately predicts what someone is
looking for. Facebook and Amazon use predictive algorithms to make
recommendations based on a user’s reading or purchasing history. AI is the
central component in self-driving cars—which can now avoid collisions and
traffic congestion—and in game-playing systems like Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo,
a computer that beat South Korean Go master Lee Sedol in a five-game match earlier
this year.
Given
AI’s wide applications, all companies today face an imperative to integrate it
into their products and services; otherwise, they will not be able to compete
with companies that are using data-collection networks to improve customer
experiences and inform business decisions. The next generation of consumers
will have grown up with digital technologies and will expect companies to
anticipate their needs and provide instant, personalized responses to any
query. So far, AI has been too costly or complex for many businesses to make
optimal use of it. It can be difficult to integrate into a business’s existing
operations, and historically it has required highly skilled data scientists. As
a result, many businesses still make important decisions based on instinct
instead of information.
This
will change in the next few years, as AI becomes more pervasive, potentially
making every company and every employee smarter, faster, and more productive.
Machine learning algorithms can analyse billions of signals to route customer
service calls automatically to the most appropriate agent or determine which
customers are most likely to purchase a particular product.
And
AI’s applications extend beyond online retail: Brick-and-mortar stores still
account for 90% of retail sales, according to the consultancy A.T. Kearney.
Soon, when customers enter a physical store, they will be greeted by
interactive chat-bots that can recommend products based on shopping history,
offer special discounts, and handle customer-service issues.
Advances
in so-called “deep learning,” a branch of AI modelled after the brain’s neural
network, could enable intelligent digital assistants to help plan vacations
with the acumen of a human assistant, or determine consumer sentiments toward a
particular brand, based on millions of signals from social networks and other
data sources. In healthcare, deep-learning algorithms could help doctors
identify cancer-cell types or intracranial abnormalities from anywhere in the
world in real time. To deploy AI effectively, companies will need to keep
privacy and security in mind. Because AI is fuelled by data, the more data the
machine gains about an individual, the better it can predict their needs and
act on their behalf. But, of course, that massive flow of personal data could
be appropriated in ways that breach trust. Companies will have to be
transparent about how they use people’s personal data. AI can also detect and
defend against digital security breaches, and will play a critical role in protecting
user privacy and building trust.
As
in past periods of economic transformation, AI will unleash new levels of
productivity, augment our personal and professional lives, and pose existential
questions about the age-old relationship between man and machine. It will
disrupt industries and dislocate workers as it automates more tasks. But just
as the Internet did 20 years ago, AI will also improve existing jobs and spawn
new ones. We should expect this and adapt accordingly by providing training for
the jobs of tomorrow, as well as safety nets for those who fall behind.
AI
is still a long way from surpassing human intelligence. It has been 60 years
since John McCarthy, a computer scientist and nominal father of AI, first
introduced the term during a conference at Dartmouth College, and computers
have only recently been able to detect cats in YouTube videos or determine the
best route to the airport.
We
can count on technological innovation to continue at an even more rapid pace
than in previous generations. AI will become like electrical current—invisible
and augmenting almost every part of our lives. 30 years from now, we will
wonder how we ever got along without our seemingly telepathic digital
assistants, just as today it’s already hard to imagine going more than a few
minutes without checking the 1980s mainframe in one’s pocket.
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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