What’s with all the hype around artificial intelligence?
When thinking of artificial intelligence, we remember being beaten by our computer during a solitaire card game, or we imagine robots that have the ability to think like humans. In the worst case, Artificial Intelligence refers to post-apocalyptic scenarios where robots take control of the world. However, AI is more of that. It has become an essential part of the technology industry and like all the technology trends before, it generates hype.
AI is the buzzword of the decade. It takes the relay on ‘Personal Computer’ that appears in the 1980s, the 1990s’ ‘WWW’ and the ‘smartphones’ of the 2000s. AI has many advantages that explains its popularity, whether for personal lifestyle, health, R&D and security. Indeed, it helps to increase your work productivity and avoids doing mundane tasks such as organising files or paying rent. It comforts in decision making and speeds the process of taking actions. Using AI is also a great way to avoid errors and compared to humans who need some sleep to survive, AI works 24/7.
The hype of Artificial Intelligence comes from the speculation of what it will achieve is so important. It has led to massive invests from government agencies and enthusiastic investors in different domains such as health, R&D, security and aerospace. Machine learning algorithms, computer vision and robotics are one of the different challenges of Artificial Intelligence in which investors expect profitable results. Those billions of investments give a huge boost to the global economy even if it may lead to a speculative bubble, the problem-solving ability of AI seems to be the key to all the pains in the world. Artificial Intelligence has made our lives so much easier and has generated progress in many areas that most of the people can’t wait to see what’s next.
Will this hype stay around forever? Like the tech trends before it, Artificial Intelligence could be outperformed by another technology. Moreover, its disadvantages could reduce humans to the desire of returning to an era when there was less AI in our environments. Besides the fear of inappropriate use for facial recognition or killer robots, machines and computers are suspicious to slowly replace some jobs. In addition, some people fear to see AI robots surpassing the human brain. Only time will tell if AI will live up to all the hype.