ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

“I visualise a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I’m rooting for the
machines.”
—Claude Shannon

Is the advancement of artificial intelligence the ruination of mankind? Artificial intelligence, i.e,
superhuman intelligence, is a simulation of human intelligence. It does so, using algorithms. It has
the potential to become more intelligent than any other human and hence, there is no way to predict
the future of mankind. We control the planet to a certain extent as we are the smartest of all living
creatures. What happens when there’s artificial intelligence, which is more smarter than us?

Artificial intelligence has the potential to outsmart the mankind for survival. Physicist Stephen
Hawking told the BBC: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the
human race.”1 Googles DeepMind did a series of experiment on how AI would react to hostile
situations. In the experiments, it was shown that the AI-powered robots resorted to violence and
attacked other robots in order to survive.2 This is related to the Darwinian evolutionary theory,
which explains the mechanism of natural selection, i.e, the survival of the fittest. The fittest will
survive in the future replacing the weaker creatures. Another big threat that artificial intelligence
possesses is unemployment. Unemployment due to artificial intelligence is observed more in
developing countries than in developed countries. This happens as a result of work automation, i.e,
the Industry 4.0 framework in the automobile industry, where a large number of robots carry out the
entire manufacturing process. It is known to be a smart factory where the robots have replaced the
labour completely leading to the eradication of manufacturing jobs. According to the 2017 Gartner
report, artificial intelligence could lead to 1.8 million job losses, particularly in the manufacturing
sector.3 This proves that artificial intelligence is the biggest threat towards unemployment. We
constantly complain to our government for unemployment issues in the country whereas theres an
equal support for the advancement of artificial intelligence in order to meet our technological
expectations.

Sebastian Thrun, the robotics developer who worked on Google’s driverless car, “My take is that
A.I. is taking over,” Thrun told The New York Times. “A few humans might still be ‘in charge,’ but
less and less so.”4 Driverless cars are the next big thing the world is looking forward to, but who
takes the liability in self-driving cars in case of any accident? Tesla’s two autonomous cars met
accidents despite of human presence and multiple warnings leading to the death of the driver.
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk at the October MIT AeroAstro Centennial Symposium, said that, “[W]e are
summoning the demon” with artificial intelligence, and calling it perhaps “our biggest existential

1 Boon or Bane?: The Unknown Future of Artificial Intelligence, [online] (accessed September 16, 2018); available
from < https://techonomy.com/2014/12/boon-bust-dystopian-future-artificial-intelligence/ >
2 Artificial
Intelligence: Boon or bane?, [online] (accessed September 16, 2018); available from < https://
www.dnaindia.com/technology/report-artificial-intelligence-boon-or-bane-2519478 >
3 AI,
a boon or bane? That is the question, [online] (accessed September 16, 2018); available from < http://
www.forbesindia.com/article/ai-work/ai-a-boon-or-bane-that-is-the-question/50715/1 >
4 Boon or Bane?: The Unknown Future of Artificial Intelligence, [online] (accessed September 16, 2018); available
from < https://techonomy.com/2014/12/boon-bust-dystopian-future-artificial-intelligence/ >
threat.” 5 Artificial intelligence could increase the number of car accidents as a result of this and
also make the humans reliable to it. Another concern with artificial intelligence is, it’s ability to
make ethical decisions. Why would robots always make ethical decisions? Robots are given human
intelligence, good or bad. It cannot be guaranteed that they would only make ethical decisions. The
threats to a war are rising in this extremely competitive world. Can it be ensured that artificial
intelligence is not going to be used for warfare purposes in the future?

Artificial intelligence could be a scourge to mankind and the advancement in artificial

intelligence could be an advancement to the post-human era.

- HITIKSHA VIRANI

5 Boon or Bane?: The Unknown Future of Artificial Intelligence, [online] (accessed September 16,
2018); available from < https://techonomy.com/2014/12/boon-bust-dystopian-future-artificial-
intelligence/ >