By: Adebiyi Emmanuel
When Artificial Intelligence (AI) is mentioned, the average person thinks about ChatGPT. Although that doesn’t capture the whole truth about artificial intelligence, they are not far from the truth. Once used as a term to describe the seemingly unrealistic technology we see in science fiction, it has slipped out of the movies into our lives.
Let’s educate ourselves a bit about AI. NASA says any artificial system that performs tasks under varying and unpredictable circumstances without significant human oversight or that can learn from experience and improve performance when exposed to data sets can be called an AI. NASA also defines Artificial Intelligence as an artificial system developed in computer software, physical hardware, or another context that solves tasks requiring human-like perception, cognition, planning, learning, communication, or physical action. Simply put, Artificial Intelligence can perform human tasks without human oversight. Although there has been a significant increase in accessibility to artificial intelligence since November 2022, when ChatGPT was publicly released by OpenAI, where it was described just as a “research preview”, it is not a new technology. It has been around for over 70 years.
The Dartmouth Conference of 1956 is considered to be one of the most pivotal events in the history of AI; it took place in the year 1956 at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA. The purpose was to see a potential “synthetic intelligence” that could make machines simulate human intelligence and use languages. They hoped to prove that every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it, attempting to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves. So just like most groundbreaking technologies, AI also took years of improvements and contributions from a vast number of people to get to the point it is today.
In the university community, something that started as an idea in New Hampshire, USA, is now very useful. Students use it to organise their study materials, to learn better. Teachers also use it to teach better. While there may be arguments about the negative impacts of artificial intelligence, like job displacement, data privacy and security, etc., one thing that is clear is that artificial intelligence is here to stay and its impacts cannot be reversed. Beyond the walls of the university, AI is not slowing down either. In healthcare we now see AI-assisted surgeries and personalised medicine.
For risk assessment and customer service automation in finance and in the manufacturing industry, artificial intelligence is used for generative design, where a prompt is all that is needed to generate innovative product designs that meet specific criteria you want. In transportation, we now have self-driving cars and trucks powered by artificial intelligence with the promise to improve traffic flow and reduce accidents. Every sector has been touched, even the agricultural sector; drones and sensors equipped with AI analyse soil conditions, plant health, and weather patterns. This can allow farmers to optimise irrigation, fertilisation, and pest control with precision. Whichever sector you can think of has seen the impact of artificial intelligence one way or the other.
With Artificial Intelligence (AI), I can dream. I want to create my own future for artificial intelligence. When in the morning, the alarm goes off, but it’s not just an alarm; it is one that has analysed my sleep pattern and has now woken me up during my lightest sleep phase, making me more refreshed. I am off the bed, but it’s not just the MOUKA foam I slept on yesterday; it’s a bed that changes my mattress’ firmness and temperature and is able to adjust my positioning based on my real-time sleep. I pick up my phone to scan my news feed and social media timeline, but it is not the same as what everyone sees; AI algorithms have curated a personalised selection of stories based on my past reading history and my responses to previous articles. It's a filter bubble, yes, but it's my filter bubble. These things no longer look unrealistic for us, so beyond all the aforementioned positives, artificial intelligence has given us the ability to dream and to dream sweet dreams.
Today, I am an optimist. I see the good in artificial intelligence; I’d be back again soon, and that time with a different story.
