With Artificial Intelligence (AI) trending in the news daily, the amount of information on the subject can be overwhelming. There are a variety of opinions on it, both good and bad. It certainly has its fun, entertaining aspects, such as using ChatGPT to write a song in the form of a haiku. However, there’s also a lot of discussion of a more sinister potential, including whether or not computers will eventually outsmart humans.
So, where are we at with AI today and where is it going?
Today, companies and governments are already using AI to do various things. “When someone writes a program that creates an artificial intelligence algorithm or system, normally they’re programming it because they want the machine to win, buy, or make a conversion,” explained IntelliSystems President and CEO, Kevin Wade.
You’ve likely experienced AI at work while browsing social media or shopping online. With social media, you may have thousands of friends but only actually interact with five to 10 percent of those. The algorithm will then funnel you towards paying attention to those users you interact with most and feed you the content of others less frequently. Likewise, if you go to a given website and begin searching for a specific product to purchase, the AI will start funneling you into an area with similar products you may be interested in while limiting other products that may be a distraction or are unrelated.
Ultimately, the machine wants to win, and that’s where we are today. A previous setback in the advancement of AI over the years was that computers weren’t smart enough or fast enough in terms of processing and memory. Due to technological advancements, we’re now at a point where it could be possible. AI has the potential to amount to a superior intelligence in terms of regular recurring processes, thinking several steps ahead, and ensuring it does things that are known to draw humans in to make poor moves.
What if humans are successful at creating AI that can actually compete with our intelligence?
“I don’t think anybody can get to a point where we are creating a sentient, human-like entity – one that ‘feels’ like humans do,” said Kevin. “But, we are at a point where we’ve got a machine that will pull out all the stops to win. There is a multinational, worldwide race to be at the forefront of this, because if a government, for instance, can cause another country’s people to do things that it wants them to do, you could create havoc in an opposing country. Basically, the war would be won before they ever landed soldiers on the ground. The war would be won from within.”
AI is a broad and developing topic. Be sure to visit the IntelliSystems blog regularly as we continue to dive deeper into the subject and share more information.