Artificial Intelligence is the Future but When?
Recently I had the opportunity to attend Communtech’s True North Conference in Kitchener/Waterloo and saw a glimpse of the future. I’m sure you’ve heard in the media that artificial intelligence (AI) is coming but if you look closer AI is already here. Toyota uses assembly robots to put together your friends Camry and Pizza Hut has a Facebook chatbot that allows your mother order a pizza within minutes. This is far from the robots you see in last year’s sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049 but the future will likely see a fully conscious AI robot.July 3, 2018
Written by James Ellard
Now don’t expect to see these highly sophisticated robots to be walking down the street any time soon; or even in your lifetime. At the moment we are in the Automation phase of AI where we need to program these AI robots step by step until a desirable outcome is achieved. This is far short of what our minds think of when it comes to AI intelligence. Even Sophia (the humanoid robot) has a lot of short comings and has a long way to go.
After the Automation phase, experts predict we will see Directed AI thirty years from now. This phase brings us a lot closer to our vision of what artificial intelligence will become. Robots will start performing many of the regular but complex tasks that happen in our daily lives, like cooking our meals, thoroughly cleaning our homes, gardening, etc. This evolution will see a big change in the work force. Robots will displace some of the human workforce causing people to rethink the way we work. It will also cause a shift to retrain the human workforce to jobs that robots are not able to perform. This transition will scare most people but it is likely that jobs will get better.
Ten years later will bring forward the next evolution of AI evolution: guided servant robots. These robots will be smarter than their predecessors and learn by observing. They can watch us perform a complex task and with ease, replicate it and improve upon the desired outcome.
The next evolution in AI will take a bit longer to achieve. It is predicted that in 100 to 150 years you will see robots acquire consciousness. These high level intellectual robots will be able to think for themselves and display cognitive thinking. They will also experience emotions like we do such as love and jealousy. Once full robot consciousness is achieved we will begin to look at the legal rights these robots have. Do they get the same legal rights a human receives? Can they take you to court? Can they adopt a human baby? These questions and many more will need to be answered in the years to come.
As AI and robots develop further the human race has the opportunity to make our lives better. We can off load all the mundane daily tasks to our robot friends and allow us to focus on achieving self-actualization. The focus going forward is to use these highly sophisticated robots for good. Utilizing this tech for war may become a reality, just as the thought of rogue robots that wish to do harm to humans such as in popular sci-fi movies. Hopefully our very talented robotic engineers and AI programmers pave the way for us to have a peaceful and enjoyable future.