The digital world is so big that we feel like it is endless. Artificial intelligence alone is huge and complex. What is Artificial Intelligence? Artificial intelligence or AI is a set of theories, techniques or systems that develop complex computer programs and are able to simulate certain properties of human intelligence (reasoning, learning, etc.). AI is built on computational neurology, mathematical logic and computer science which forms a corpus often integrated in the cognitive sciences. Some players design AI in relation to human intelligence. Others with an ideal intelligence model called rationality. The latter links these two models and others think that the human model is the minimum goal to be achieved.
In short, for the layman and to put it simply, it is a more efficient and faster machine than the human brain that designed it. The algorithms that form the basis of artificial intelligence are developed by humans. According to researcher Aurélie Jean, algorithms have been around since ancient times and without them there is no artificial intelligence. Aurélie Jean warns: Don’t believe the algorithm is perfect. It was designed by a man and developed by a man. The cultural influence will also reverberate in the development of an algorithm. Artificial intelligence is a reflection of who we are socially.
Contrary to popular belief, AI has a real story. Many people have contributed to the development of the system over time. We are not going back to ancient times, but we are staying in the 1940s when Cybernetics was created.
From the functioning of the human brain and thus Norbert Wienner’s cybernetics to Donald Hebb’s cognitivism in 1949, by overwrought connectionism, the researchers announce that thinking would be a manipulation of symbols, independent of any material support. Soon after the introduction of a neural network simulator by Marvin Minsky in 1951, John McCarthy first used the term artificial intelligence. For a long time, scientists would be bankrupted by stringing together failures in their research experiment in their lab at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge in the United States. Minsky and McCarthy fail to keep their promises made at the beginning of AI – machine translation and victory in chess partly due to a computer.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that the United States managed to invest heavily in AI, and the results were not long in coming when Deep Bleu defeated World Chess Champion Gary Kasparov.
In 2000, at the time of the Internet explosion, AI will enter a new period of expansion, powered by convolution networks (spiral application), graphics processors and the delivery of a gigantic database that enables better learning.
With the rise of GAFAM and especially Google, AI opens new areas of action. In particular, search engines and Deep Learning through which a machine can learn from its mistakes. From the ancient times of algorithms where Aurélie Jean speaks on GAFAM, AI has been gaining ground. In 2017, two Google robots create their own language, communicate with each other and Duplex presents the possibility to call and make appointments.
Artificial intelligence drives economic activity and the numbers it generates can often make you dizzy. According to McKinsley’s Global Institute, by 2030, artificial intelligence will be adopted by 70% of companies worldwide, generating $13 trillion in economic activity over the same period. In France, 5,300 researchers are in the field and already working in this sector of artificial intelligence.
Employment estimates aren’t bad either. According to statistics from a study by Malakoff Mérédic, 21 million jobs could be created worldwide in the artificial intelligence sector by 2030. These aren’t just great announcements in this area of employment. There is, of course, also bad news. Estimates show more than 6 million jobs in finance could disappear by 2030. Enough to say that the artificial intelligence sector will not only bring good luck to some but will also bring misfortune to others and in various sectors.
In our daily lives, artificial intelligence simplifies our lives and it is almost everywhere. For example, take a look at home automation in our homes, where it helps us manage energy, security, household chores and even leisure activities. Our whole daily life becomes simple: our doors open automatically, we find the addresses of our friends via GPS, etc… Artificial intelligence is in full swing everywhere in electronic diaries, personal assistants and automatic cars. Its use makes it possible to be replaced by artificial intelligence in repetitive, often restrictive work and to free up time for other work.
Needless to say, artificial intelligence is driving the growth of industries across the value chain. Finance, health, transport, energy and agri-food: all these sectors have adopted artificial intelligence as a technology essential to their operation and efficiency. Partly thanks to The Cloud, data has become more accessible. This new form of massive data storage makes it possible to process them in real time. And thanks to this massive storage capacity, artificial intelligences can also analyze this data in real time using Machine Learning.
This does not mean that artificial intelligence only has advantages without disadvantages. Far from there. There are a whole host of drawbacks to artificial intelligence that are more dangerous to human society.
Artificial intelligence would endanger the survival of humanity. According to some pessimistic scientists, this could come to an end. According to Ray Kurzweil, the American engineer and futurist, artificial intelligence could enslave people. He even thinks that artificial intelligence will take over in 2029. Imagine a robot taking over the White House in less than ten years.
Above all, Elon Musk and Bill Gates want to avoid and even prevent this possibility. They focus their research on the connected brain. Artificial intelligence puts personal data at risk. Privacy is under threat as connected objects collect information about our habits and behaviors. As we indicated above, millions of jobs will disappear. Schumpeter’s model of creative destruction, that one job lost can be made up for by the creation of another in another industry, will become impossible because of artificial intelligence.
According to Elon Musk, artificial intelligence will revolutionize the wealth distribution model that is in danger of disappearing. Hence, the idea of income for some, or wages for others, makes universal sense. Elon Musk advocates the idea of a universal income. Robots can replace people at work. And in this case, it will be necessary to revise the whole of human society both economically and philosophically. Aurélie Jean advises changing the methods of developing algorithms for a better world.
