While experts may disagree the timing of when Artificial Intelligence (AI) will replace humans in various activities, there is no doubt that AI will play a large part in society going forward.
A recent article in MIT Technology Review suggests adoption will be “lumpy” with some industries, making progress faster than others. Interestingly enough, “The experts predict that AI will outperform humans in the next 10 years in tasks such as translating languages (by 2024), writing high school essays (by 2026), and driving trucks (by 2027).”
“The experts go on to predict a 50 percent chance that AI will be better than humans at more or less everything in about 45 years.” This result was not a consensus by any means, as they point out “North American researchers expect AI to outperform humans at everything in 74 years, researchers from Asia expect it in just 30 years.”
Our responsibility, like parents, is to train these systems to understand that the quality of the data being used and analyzed is of high quality, reliable, and consistent in its value. It would be easy to envision an AI system that was either trained solely on "fake news" or one that lacked the ability to distinguish between investigative journalism and creative writing running amok at best or doing real harm at worst.
Afterall, AI doesn't happen in a vacuum. We, humans, will train these systems. The quality and sources of data are critical for their success and their ability to create economic and social value. That data is the data we are creating today to connect, communicate, and make today's decisions. It is from current and similar sources that tomorrow’s decisions will rely on, so we can be smarter leaders. It is in our best interest to make sure we are using the highest quality data. The future is closer than we think.
~ Mike Serrano, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, NETSCOUT