Table of contents:
What is AI
Rise of AI
Will AI take our Jobs
References
What is AI?
AI is simply a program which makes decisions based on large amounts of data provided. In total there are 4 types of AI:
1. Reactive machines
Reactive machines are AI systems that are task-specific which means that an input always delivers the same output. For example, they will take in customer data such as purchase or search history and use it to deliver recommendations to the same customers.
2. Limited memory
The next type of AI is limited memory. This algorithm mimics the way our human brains work. This is done by giving the AI more data to train off which makes it learn and become more intelligent. An example of limited memory AI is self-driving cars. The way that self-driving cars work is that they analyse other cars on the road for their speed, direction, and proximity. This information is programmed for what the car should look out for such as knowing the different traffic lights, signs, curves, bumps etc on the road. This data helps the car decide when to change lanes so that it does not get hit or cut off by another driver.
3. Theory of mind
Theory of mind is a type of AI that will be built in the future and currently there aren’t any real world examples yet. Humans understand how our thoughts and emotions affect others, and how others affect us and this is the basis of our society’s human relationships. In the future, theory of mind AI machines could be able to understand intentions and predict behaviour, possibly even simulate human relationships.
4. Self-awareness
The final type of AI is Self-awareness which is a system that has a conscious understanding of its existence. This type of AI does not currently exist yet. We are a long way from self-aware AI because there is still so much to uncover about the human brain’s intelligence and how memory, learning, and decision-making work.
Rise of AI:
Recently we have seen a huge rise in the use of AI with the launch of ChatGPT3 which can generate answers with the user's input and also generate code, most recently we have also seen GPT4. We have also seen new AI products such as image-generating AI which can create images upon a user's request. This rise of AI has created a concern among the public that one day AI will eventually take our jobs. While this statement is not entirely true, it's not entirely false either.
Will AI take our Jobs:
The number 1 concern of everyone is "Will AI take my job?", now the answer to this question is a bit more complex. We must first understand how AI works which is done by using data created by humans from websites/platforms such as Wikipedia and if you are a software engineer then you will be well aware of stack overflow. For more technical professions like software development, you will always need software engineers and this could be for things like the maintenance of source code for machine learning models because AI can't write its code. Also, you will need software engineers to work on existing code bases and solve bugs because AI can only generate human data by platforms like stack overflow so you will always need humans to create these solutions.
AI has made our life easier for example if someone wants to make a website but they have no experience with writing code then they can just use any free AI service like GPT3 and tell it in detail how the website should look like and it will generate the necessary code for the website within minutes. With the rise of AI, we will also see the rise of innovation because there is no longer a barrier to entry when it comes to learning new things or creating software products.
In the next 20 years, we will see certain jobs becoming obsolete, the same way when the printing press was introduced certain jobs became obsolete but there will also be an increase in demand for other professions. For example, data entry/data analyst jobs will become more popular in the next few decades because machine learning models need large amounts of data for processing and analysis. Also there will be a demand for AI developers to maintain, develop and debug code specifically for AI products and services.
Overall AI will make certain jobs redundant but we will also have a convenience in our day-to-day lives. The only thing we can do is learn more about this new technology and see how we can improve our skill sets with the use of AI and make it monetizable.