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What is Artificial Intelligence?
AI is the most transformed form of technology since the dawn of information. There is a lot of AI in our lives, you can see it on your smart-phone, every time you ask Alexa on your smart-phone when you ask for navigation, AI is recognizing your speech, questions and gives you search results, and recommends books for you to read and buy on Amazon. There is absolutely the beginning of AI everywhere in our lives. In fact AI is the new Electricity according to Andrew NG former Chief AI scientist, Baidu Research. We don’t normally think about electricity but electricity powers our planet. So AI is going to be like rooms lights on, lights off, call mom, prepare my best meal, perhaps you walk to your car and tell it to take you to wherever you want to go since they have access to your calendar. This can be seen today from Driving car robotics which has cameras and sensors which take inputs in order to accelerate the car or turn it. Mobile applications such as Uber, Facebook, malaria detectors, and others are some of the platforms supported by machine learning and AI.
Why is it all Possible Now?
There has been exposure in AI now because of the convergence of foreign exponentials which include or are not limited to some of the following;
Moore’s law
• Every two years we are having a doubling of data which is boosting machine learning algorithms that are hungry for data.
• Another exponential is due to scientists who have been working on AI for the past 50 years and algorithms are starting to get better.
• And of course not forgetting, funding has been doubling every two years with top companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple investing fortunes in this technology.
It’s now right to say we have now the data, algorithms, funds, and people to work on the AI problems.
What is Machine learning?
This is the little part of AI that is focused on teaching programs to learn. If you think about how we got started being intelligent, we all started with learning. So we write programs that learn to improve themselves we give them a lot of data at the moment and they start improving themselves faster than a normal human being could.
The rate of Machine learning is going to be exponential unlike we humans who have to learn things through difficulties, computers are going to learn on a planet-wide scale not an individual level. It’s games humans use to determine the level of intelligence between humans or even humans and machines.
In 1970, Shakey the first AI robot was created
In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer beat Russian chess Master, Garry Kasparov.
In 2016, Google’s AlphaGo beat GO master, Lee Sedol.
This shows how fast computers are learning and is a benchmark researchers use to determine the level of intelligence of this technology.
How far can Artificial intelligence GO?
Full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race – Stephen Hawking
Artificial Intelligence takes over Jobs.
It’s hard to estimate but Jobs that make ends meet for young people are likely to be affected. Young people are mostly affected because the tasks they take are exactly the same tasks entry AI can easily do best. I have tried to indicate the percentage at which AI can easily be applied in the jobs you are doing today.
Professional Drivers: In the next 10-15 years, we shall see highly automated cars driving and taking people to destinations without necessarily having someone in them. Autopilot cars will be absolutely drive-less.
Paralegal (Lawyers): AI will not only this time automate physical tasks but thinking ones as well. Ailira is an example of artificial intelligence for providing legal Services. It allows you to ask a question and provides solutions in seconds. The platform checks millions of cases around the world and brings back results it considers to be the best. AI would blow up lawyers’ monopoly on basic legal.
Financial Planners: It is estimated that 15% of the average time of a financial planner is spent on tasks that can be done by AI, AI can do everything a financial planner can do except talk to clients.
School Teacher: 20% of his job can be done by AI, unlike a university lecturer who is less vulnerable at 13%.
Journalist: 20% of work done by journalists can be done by AI
Hospitality workers: 58% of their work can be automated by Artificial Intelligence.
It’s fun but true that robots can now take orders, make burgers, and even deliver food in some parts of Africa.
AI in Health Care
Doctors: AI can do much of what doctors do daily. Algorithms are being taught how to learn the language of medicine. IBM developed Computer Watson which brings together a multiple of data and learns to reason and generate recommendations. Watson can read the natural human language, read through all patient records, doctors’ guidelines, and articles around the world and recommend the best solution to patients within seconds. Apart from Watson, With the recent announcement by Google to make the Tensor Flow machine learning algorithm open source, developers have been able to come up with applications that can scan and detect diseases like breast cancer, malaria, and HIV/AIDS.
These percentages were calculated by economist Andrew Charlton in his report that was commissioned by Google in Australia. However, Africa is no exception to this and perhaps more vulnerable than the West world. You can visit the link below to determine what percentage of your job can be automated by AI Checkhere.
Conclusion:
The biggest misconception people have is AI and automation is destroying Jobs and the reality is it’s changing every job, it’s not about what job we do but how we do our jobs. Automation and AI are not going to affect some workers but it is fact going to affect every worker. Africa like the rest of the world should embrace automation and Artificial Intelligence to improve its productivity by 15%. Normal employees need food, and salary to work, unlike robots. Robots don’t get tired. The government should be in a position to transition employees affected by big technology advancements like AI. However, the general population should also embrace AI technology and work on being more creative and working closely with it. It’s Unfortunate that our education System is not keeping up with the advancing technology today. Research shows that up to 70% of students in Africa are studying for Jobs that are highly likely to be automated by Artificial Intelligence over the next 30 years.
Will there be many Jobs left as before??
Comment your opinion below in the comment section about the rise of Artificial Intelligence.