Every one of us must have heard or thought about Artificial Intelligence at some point in our life. We all grew up watching movies like Terminator, or Matrix. All these movies popularized the term 'Artificial Intelligence' or what we call ‘AI’.
However, it was in the last decade that we saw a genuine rise in AI mechanisms. It has acted as a catalyst in the growing digital transformation we are observing around us. This is why, today, AI is one of the hottest buzzwords in the tech world.
The next question to ask is, how did Artificial Intelligence became such a prevalent part of our lives? The onus lies partly in the exponential rise in our internet consumption and the subsequent overabundance of data. The gathered data became the focus of research and analysis, to gain substantial insights which could be further monetized. This was when the birth of Artificial Intelligence became a necessity because machines were more suited to analyze large amounts of data as compared to humans.
What is AI?
AI is a broad branch of computer science focused on building smart machines that can perform tasks which require human intelligence. Artificial Intelligence has two branches. The first one is 'applied AI' that deals with the principles of simulating human logic to perform a specific task. The second one is called 'generalized AI' that deals with developing machine intelligence which can perform any task, similar to a person.
Which are the key domains to embrace AI?
AI has generated high interest among various communities. This interest has led to revolutionary developments. Today, Artificial Intelligence is used in domains ranging from finance to healthcare domain. Applied Artificial Intelligence is making its way into new domains each year. Domains such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and so on are using applied AI. In the general consumer world, nearly every technology we are embracing in our daily life utilizes AI.
While applied Artificial Intelligence is growing at an exponential rate, the growth of generalized AI is still trying to gain momentum. The principal reason for this lag stems from the fact that to simulate human intelligence, we need more computing power. This computing power isn't available at present. But this may change very soon since computer technologies are also evolving at a rapid speed.
What is the future of AI?
The answer to this question depends on the person answering. Different people have distinct opinions on AI, and most times, these opinions are poles apart from each other.
The reason for such contradicting views regarding AI stems from a lack of awareness which in turn ignites the fear of the unknown. The biggest fear people have are that robots might take over the world in terms of jobs. Thereby, eradicating job opportunity for humans.
While AI will not wholly eradicate human jobs, it will overtake the mundane tasks which can be efficiently performed by computers. Therefore, pushing us to reskill ourselves and upgrade our knowledge. Technological growth is necessary for the growth of humans in general. It can't and shouldn't be halted as it would mean stagnancy in human growth.
