by How many times has artificial intelligence played the villain in multiple sci-fi novels or movies? Too many to count. The idea of a creation gaining sentience beyond any programming the maker could implement naturally instills fear in many people. To think for oneself is what many consider to be the characteristic of being alive, and should a program gain that ability, would it be considered alive? Of course, we haven’t reached that state remotely as of yet, but artificial intelligence in its basest form is used daily in many ways now.
There are so many examples of how artificial intelligence is used today. In cars, such as Tesla, artificial intelligence is used to determine the speed, angle, and other mechanics of driving using camera images and programming. This allows for practical decision making based off the input given. Another example is in our internet use. Now, data mining and general online behavior tracking goes through multiple algorithms and artificial intelligence to generate what is thought to be our interests. That leads to ads being placed specifically tailored to what you have been browsing. On that note, spam and other unwanted information can be filtered out and targeted using artificial intelligence. Websites like Amazon especially will use its artificial intelligence to “learn” the shopping behaviors and such of people. This leads to better selections shown that you either browsed or are related to what you browsed.
Other forms of AI are more obvious since we use them. Namely, virtual assistants such as SIRI or Cortana. This is most likely the closest to the AI seen in movies, where a program takes on the form of a human personality. Right now, it is mainly just a script with multiple possible outcomes based on voice input, but as they become more and more advanced, it will be hard to tell there isn’t an actual consciousness in the phone helping you out. On a more sinister note, artificial intelligence can also be used in situations where you wouldn’t want “humanlike” AI’s like Siri, such as programs designed to assess danger or potential war attacks. Removing human error from a cold, analytics side is what is the basis of many horror AI ideas mentioned in the beginning, a ruthless program designed to achieve its goal regardless of the consequences. Terminator, the popular movie franchise, goes into this with their version of a rogue AI killing all humans in favor of its own machinery.
But AI could be implemented in this way without such a monstrous outcome. For example, currently, chess is ranked so the very best players are called grandmasters. Even the best are far below an AI’s playing ability. By using AI in situations where not having the limited processing power of the human brain is a benefit, there could be many applications for such in fields of science to have explosive growth. Robots are already taking many peoples’ jobs with higher rates of efficiency, with a development in their AI beyond what we have now, the best outcome would be a super workforce while the more likely outcome would be a decimated human economy.