ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: MATTERS ARISING

 Sonny Aragba-Akpore argues that with all its usefulness AI lacks the ability to comprehend emotions and intricacies of hu­man relationships

As we grapple with the vagaries of life in general and the challenges arising therefrom, technology is fast taking over our way of thinking and the actions we take as human beings.

This is the era of artificial intelligence whereby robots have been scientifically created to take over some or many of human activities. Only recently, a full church service took place in Germany and robots were in charge of all departments from the beginning to the end.

  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is machine-displayed intelligence that simulates human behavior or thinking and can be trained to solve specific problems. 

  AI is a combination of Machine Learning techniques and Deep Learning. Types of Artificial Intelligence models are trained using vast volumes of data and have the ability to make intelligent decisions.

According to Statista, revenue from the Artificial Intelligence software market worldwide is expected to reach 126 billion dollars by 2025

Gartner says that 37% of organizations have implemented AI in some form. The percentage of enterprises employing AI grew 270% over the past four years. Servion Global Solutions says that by 2025, 95% of customer interactions will be powered by AI.

  A recent 2020 report from Statista reveals that the global AI software market is expected to grow approximately 54% year-on-year and is expected to reach a forecast size of  USD $22.6 billion.

  Artificial Intelligence technology is now used to create recommendation engines through which one can engage better with customers. Dawood Patel, CEO of Helm, comments: “AI and ML have demonstrated impressive ca­pabilities in automating tasks, processing large amounts of data, and making informed decisions.

Think of those chatbots that handle customer service inquiries or help you reboot your internet when it’s down, AI has undoubtedly enhanced various domains.

“However, beyond the sur­face of things like sentiment analysis, AI lacks the ability to comprehend emotions, empa­thy, and the intricacies of hu­man relationships which are essential for it to be able to do its job. It’s important that we continue to harness the emo­tion and empathy required or we are in danger of becoming a robotic society.

“Understanding emotions and interpreting personal touches are quintessential human traits that arise from our complex neural networks and emotional intelligence. AI might be able to recognise fa­cial expressions, but it cannot understand the depth of emo­tions that underlie them.”

  Only humans can perceive these nuances and adapt their approach accordingly to build meaningful connections.

“One of the greatest con­cerns surrounding AI is the potential threat to jobs. While it is true that some routine and repetitive tasks may be auto­mated, the integration of AI and ML will lead to the evo­lution of existing jobs rather than mass unemployment.

“As AI takes over mundane tasks, it frees up humans to fo­cus on more creative, strategic, and high-level responsibilities which cannot be undertaken by machines. Much like cer­tain jobs implemented with AI could not be fulfilled by humans,” explains Patel.

An example of this would be a conveyor belt in a factory where AI-powered diagnostic tools can analyse the quality of fruit (or if a pizza has been perfectly topped with cheese) with impressive accuracy.

While AI can assist in de­tecting items that are not up to standard for export or resale, it cannot replace the expertise and intuition of a seasoned medical professional for example. This person will understand and consider a pa­tient’s lifestyle, and emotion­al well-being before making a diagnosis and prescribing a treatment plan.

“Instead of replacing doc­tors, AI serves as a valuable tool here to enhance their abilities and streamlining the diagnostic process, supporting the doctor.”

As AI continues to advance, it will create new job opportu­nities that require uniquely human skills. The develop­ment and maintenance of AI systems will require skilled professionals with expertise in data science, Machine Learn­ing, and computer program­ming.

Additionally, AI’s integra­tion across various industries will demand individuals who can understand, interpret, and leverage AI-driven insights to make informed decisions and drive innovation.

“For hardworking people who seek growth in their ca­reers, the rise of AI represents an opportunity rather than a threat. Embracing AI technol­ogy and acquiring the neces­sary skills to work alongside it can open doors to new and challenging roles. These roles may involve human-AI collab­oration, strategic planning, creativity, and problem-solv­ing – the aspects of a job that demand the human touch. This is what excites me,” said Patel.

The future of AI and ML is undoubtedly promising, but it is crucial to recognise the indispensable role of humans.

“Emotion, personal touches, and human nuances are qual­ities that define our humani­ty and set us apart from ma­chines. Rather than replacing humans, AI will augment and elevate our capabilities, lead­ing to the evolution of jobs and the emergence of new opportu­nities,” concludes Patel.

Recommendations are made in accordance with browsing history, preference, and interests. These help in improving relationships with customers and their loyalty towards any brands.

For instance, Virtual shopping assistants and chatbots help improve the user experience while shopping online whereby Natural Language Processing is used to make the conversation sound as human and personal as possible. Moreover, these assistants can have real-time engagement with your customers.  Credit card frauds and fake reviews are two of the most significant issues that E-Commerce companies deal with. By considering the usage patterns, AI can help reduce the possibility of credit card fraud taking place. Many customers prefer to buy a product or service based on customer reviews. AI can help identify and handle fake news.

  Although the education sector is the one most influenced by humans, Artificial Intelligence has slowly begun to seep its roots into the education sector as well. 

·         Even in the education sector, this slow transition of Artificial Intelligence has helped increase productivity among faculties and helped them concentrate more on students than office or administration work.

Some of the applications in this sector include but not limited to Administrative Tasks Automated to Aid Educators.

Artificial Intelligence can help educators with non-educational tasks like task-related duties like facilitating and automating personalized messages to students, back-office tasks like grading paperwork, arranging and facilitating parent and guardian interactions, routine issue feedback facilitating, managing enrollment, courses, and other topics. 

Digitization of content like video lectures, conferences, and textbook guides can be made using Artificial Intelligence. 

These can apply different interfaces like animations and learning content through customization for students from different grades. 

Artificial Intelligence helps create a rich learning experience by generating and providing audio and video summaries and integral lesson plans.

Without even the direct involvement of the lecturer or the teacher, a student can access extra learning material or assistance through Voice Assistants. Through this, printing costs of temporary handbooks and also provide answers to very common questions. 

Artificial Intelligence has a lot of influence on our everyday lifestyles. Automobile manufacturing companies like Toyota, Audi, Volvo, and Tesla use machine learning to train computers to think and evolve like humans when it comes to driving in any environment and object detection to avoid accidents.

The email that we use in our day-to-day lives has AI that filters out spam emails sending them to spam or trash folders, letting us see the filtered content only. The popular email provider, Gmail, has managed to reach a filtration capacity of approximately 99.9%.

Our favorite devices like our phones, laptops, and PCs use facial recognition techniques by using face filters to detect and identify in order to provide secure access. Apart from personal usage, facial recognition is a widely used Artificial Intelligence application even in high security-related areas in several industries.

 Artificial Intelligence has been very popular in Navigation. “Based on research from MIT, GPS technology can provide users with accurate, timely, and detailed information to improve safety. The technology uses a combination of Convolutional Neural Networks and Graph Neural Networks, which makes lives easier for users by automatically detecting the number of lanes and road types behind obstructions on the roads. AI is heavily used by Uber and many logistics companies to improve operational efficiency, analyze road traffic, and optimize routes.

Robotics is another field where Artificial Intelligence applications are commonly used. Robots powered by AI use real-time updates to sense obstacles in its path and pre-plan its journey instantly. 

Robotics are now prevalent in carrying goods in factories, essential medical equipment in hospitals and warehouses, cleaning offices and large equipment, inventory management, among others.

Artificial Intelligence is now in Human Resource management whereby companies use intelligent software to ease the hiring process.

Artificial Intelligence helps with blind hiring. Using machine learning software, you can examine applications based on specific parameters. AI drive systems can scan job candidates’ profiles, and resumes to provide recruiters an understanding of the talent pool they must choose from.  

Aragba-Akpore is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board