AI is transforming the way we work, learn, travel, and access health care. In the future, it will even redefine industry structures.
Advanced natural language processing – exemplified by technologies like ChatGPT – is helping to bring AI closer to humans. This is especially important for tasks that require understanding context and nuance in speech.
Health Care
The use of AI is revolutionizing many sectors, including finance, national security, health care, criminal justice and transportation. The technology is altering decisionmaking, business models, risk mitigation and system performance. However, the way in which AI is developed needs to be better understood because of the major implications it may have for society as a whole.
Experts share mostly positive expectations about the future, with more efficient productivity and people to form a connection with AI. The most significant change will be in the workplace as algorithms replace manual tasks like assembling and welding car parts, scrubbing emails, or typing reports. But AI will also add a new dimension to professional jobs by analyzing information and recommending solutions. This will give human workers more time to think creatively, analyze data and consider risks.
Some experts fear a point of no return, an intelligence explosion that would create a new kind of world. A so-called technological singularity would be far beyond anything humans have experienced and may cause irreparable damage or even destroy the planet.
Others see a more gradual impact. Many blue collar manufacturing jobs will be replaced by AI robots that work 24/7, don’t get sick, and require little or no pay. Routine white-collar jobs will gradually be eliminated too, freeing up time for professionals to focus on more strategic issues and more complex problems.
As AI becomes more advanced, it is being used to help doctors diagnose and treat patients. For example, a computer-based system designed by the German company Merantix can analyze CT scans of lymph nodes and identify small lesions or growths. The system can read thousands of images in a fraction of the time required by a human radiology technician, who can only look at four at a time.
In addition to enhancing the computational sophistication of AI, researchers are exploring how to incentivize companies to develop responsible AI through private-sector mechanisms. One approach is federated learning, in which AI is trained on multiple decentralized devices or servers holding local data samples. Another is homomorphic encryption, which encodes data in a form the AI owner can’t decrypt, making it impossible for the company to use that data in an unfair or discriminatory manner.
Education
While AI is already transforming the way people work and play, it still lacks human-level intelligence. AI researchers are currently working toward strong AI, which would enable machines to do everything that humans do. This includes reasoning, learning, advanced analytics and pattern recognition, sophisticated decision-making, visual acuity, language translation and more. This type of AI could eventually replace many jobs, including those in retail, banking, insurance and energy, but it could also create new ones. The experts in our canvassing believe that networked AI systems will amplify our effectiveness and empower us to have better lives, but they also warned of potential downsides, such as the need for laws governing AI systems to prevent them from being used for cyberbullying, stock manipulation or terrorist threats.
In healthcare, experts hope AI will help us diagnose diseases and make treatment decisions. They expect that augmented reality and virtual assistants will allow patients to interact with their health care providers more easily. They also see AI improving patient outcomes by reducing dosage errors, which are often caused by poor follow-up by patients. For example, 70% of insulin users miss their doses, and a simple error like this can lead to dangerous complications.
Education AI will improve student outcomes by offering personalized, adaptive learning experiences for students based on their abilities and interests. It will help students master difficult concepts, and it will support teachers by eliminating routine administrative tasks and allowing them to focus on classroom instruction. AI tutoring systems will also recognize students’ learning preferences, styles and progress and direct them towards a personally satisfying outcome.
Experts predict that AI will revolutionize the business world by automating workflows and processes, and enabling organizations to analyze data and patterns to optimize performance. They also say that AI will enable companies to detect risks and opportunities more quickly, save money by replacing manual labor with algorithms and help prevent cybersecurity breaches. In manufacturing, AI will enable robots to detect flaws in products and on the production line, eliminate manual errors with data processing and analytics and streamline assembly by using automated algorithms that replicate existing work processes.
Automation
The rapid advancement of AI has prompted entire industries to refocus around it. It will change the way people work, play, travel, get health care, communicate with each other, and even live — just like the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, and mobile phones. AI will also become the main differentiator between businesses that succeed and those that fail. “A company’s success in the age of AI will depend on its ability to use it well,” writes Karim Lakhani, a professor at Harvard Business School and co-author of the 2020 book Competing in the Age of AI. He recommends that companies experiment, create sandboxes, and run internal bootcamps to train employees on the latest AI technologies. “Companies that adopt these capabilities early will distinguish themselves.”
Automation is one area where AI has already made significant inroads. It’s common in automated data entry, manufacturing processes, and repetitive office tasks. Machine learning enhances predictive modeling and decision-making in systems such as maintenance forecasting, production optimization, and sales forecasting. It’s also used in customer service chatbots and natural language processing to enable users to ask questions and receive answers.
Some experts believe that automation will help reduce the amount of time and energy that humans need to perform certain tasks, thereby freeing up more time for other activities. They expect this will lead to a wide variety of benefits, including the improvement of human-to-human interactions, the creation of new jobs, and better quality of life.
However, other experts worry about the potential downsides of these changes. They fear that AI will replace jobs, increase inequality and exaggerate existing biases, such as racial bias in facial recognition technology that favors lighter skin tones or gender bias in language translation. They also worry about the impact on their own lives and jobs, as well as the effects on society and the environment.
Many experts agree that the current state of artificial intelligence is a long way from creating a general or “strong” AI, which would be capable of performing any intellectual task that humans are capable of. Such an AI could establish its own goals, which might conflict with ours.
Robotics
As AI moves beyond the realm of software, it is making its way into physical form. AI enables robots to navigate environments, process data and make decisions. This gives them autonomy and decreases the need for human intervention. This can be seen in e-commerce where algorithms predict what items will appeal to you, making the customer experience more personalized and efficient. It is also used to reduce error rates in manufacturing and healthcare; for example, it can interpret mammograms at 99% accuracy without biopsies or diagnose diseases with 90% accuracy.
Another application of AI is in the manufacturing industry, where it has made significant improvements in the production and quality of products. It has improved efficiencies, reduced downtime and increased safety. It has also helped reduce the costs of materials and energy. In the future, intelligent machines will be able to recognize patterns that cause errors or flaws in final products and automatically shut down equipment or correct the problem. It is also expected to improve financial decision-making, reducing risks and increasing profitability.
Healthcare is a sector where AI is already widely used. From assisting in surgery to providing physical therapy, diagnosing patients and assisting doctors with their tasks, it has transformed the way medical professionals work. AI is also transforming the educational system, where customized learning will provide students with a tailored education based on their abilities and needs.
Autonomous vehicles are also increasingly powered by AI. These autonomous vehicles include self-driving cars, drones and delivery robots. AI has enabled them to operate faster and more safely by detecting obstacles, avoiding collisions and predicting traffic conditions. It can also improve the safety of cargo and ensure the load is properly secured for transportation.
While some people are concerned about how AI will impact the world, other researchers see it as a positive development. According to professor of communication and data science R. Stuart Geiger, the institutions upon which our society is built are facing challenges and need to adapt to these new technologies. They must create new jobs that will take advantage of the power of these tools and protect them from misuse and bias. Geiger argues that companies developing these new tools have a responsibility to introduce AI protections to ensure they don’t negatively affect people or damage their environment. They should also establish guidelines to promote ethical use of the technology. In the future, he says, advanced AI may become capable of understanding and communicating with humans using language, generating images and moving in physical space. This could lead to the creation of a global network of artificial intelligence that dwarfs human capacity.