Tech Leaders Have Strong Opinions on Artificial Intelligence

What do you think about artificial intelligence? Will AI help usher in a new age in human innovation? Or will AI bring on the destruction of humanity? Artificial Intelligence has become one of the most polarizing technologies of the past 50 years, debated among researchers, CEOs, and even in our movies. However, are these concerns worth it? Today we are going to explore both sides of the argument and look at what some of the world’s top leaders think about intelligent machines. 

Now, artificial intelligence is one of the most talked-about topics across the technology world and even in pop culture. Some of the best films to come out in the past decade have tackled the coming ethical and philosophical challenges of artificial intelligence. While most business leaders feel AI will have some form of impact on their businesses very soon. Ina reportput together by Inc., about ⅓ of business leaders believe AI is among the technologies that will have the greatest impact on their companies, and they have good reason to believe this. 

AI disruption is already here. In a study conducted byGartner Research, researchers found that 37% of organizations have implemented AI in some form. While80% of emerging technologies will have AI foundations. Even more so, the IDC hasstatedthat “Artificial intelligence has come into the mainstream because it allows us to make sense of an increasingly large amount of data in real-time. Indeed, worldwide data will grow 61% to 175 zettabytes by 2025.”

Before jumping into the primary arguments for artificial intelligence and what top business leaders think about the emerging technology, you need to get a quick grasp of different types of artificial intelligence as not every single level of the technology poses a threat.

Now there are three basic types of artificial intelligence Artificial Narrow Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence, and Artificial Super Intelligence. Let’s start with Artificial Narrow Intelligence. Also known as Narrow AI or Weak AI, this is the type of artificial intelligence that you see today. This form of AI plays a vital role in the technology that you use in your homes like Google Assistant, Google Translate, Siri, Cortana, or Alexa. This type of AI focuses on one single narrow task.

In short, Narrow AI is not conscious, sentient, or driven by emotion. Narrow AI operates within a predetermined, predefined range of parameters. Nevertheless, this form of AI is still extremely useful and can be used to do everything from creating art to identifying cancer in people. A majority of people have little to no fear of Narrow AI.  

The next level of artificial intelligence is called Artificial General Intelligence and is what some people call the beginning of the end. Artificial General Intelligence would be a machine capable of understanding the world as well as any human, and with the same capacity to learn how to carry out a huge range of tasks. This level of artificial intelligence would be able to match our own intelligence. Some experts argue that humans may never push machines beyond narrow AI, yet the reality is that we will probably reach this level of AI sometime very shortly. 

Finally, there is Artificial Super Intelligence, the moment where AI surpasses humans in every possible way. This is where things get very close to some of the biggest antagonists in the science fiction genre. However, we might not reach the levels of Artificial Super Intelligence in decades or a century. When people discuss the future of artificial intelligence, most of the concerns and excitement center around Artificial General Intelligence, and Artificial Super Intelligence.

Secondly, let’s look at some of the general arguments for and against artificial intelligence. Whether for the better or worse smart machines are going to affect every facet of our lives.