AI: Pros and cons
Mehreen Nazerali Versi (Arusha, Tanzania) is a published author, an avid reader, and poet. She wrote her book; Spectrum of Happiness when she was 18 and published it a few years later. She writes articles covering a number of subject areas, edits content both of academic and non-academic nature. Her aim is to build a community of critical readers who are able to read, question, and reason with content beyond what it says as plain text.
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verything in this world has two sides to it, just like a coin, and it is so important to consider both even during an argument a decision is only derived once both sides are consulted. Over the decade, there has been a major growth in Artificial Intelligence and it has become a common linguistic term that is interchanged to mean so many things. So what is Artificial Intelligence after all?
First and foremost, I would like to break down the term into its single names artificial and intelligence for analytical purposes. When we identify something to be artificial, it simply means it is a replica of its original counterpart. Whereas, intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. This ability is only known to be possessed by humans to date. Therefore, artificial intelligence is in essence the ability of an external object to copy the human mind. This external object is technology in many forms; be it computers or robots.
Now, AI is not a recent discovery, it has only gained momentum recently. Research started early on in the 1900s and has been evolving ever since. Popular names like Elon Musk have used this technology in cars and hence giving rise to self-driven cars. Who would have ever thought that a car could drive on its own? Well, AI has made this possible. That is great, especially for long drives when you can give yourself a bit of a break, but let us take a step back. As fascinating as it seems, how many of us will actually sleep peacefully while letting a car drive around by itself? Yes, technology has made advancements and made our life easier, but who has actually made this system and how does it work? If we look at the same example, the car runs on maps which tends to be accurate most of the time. However, it may not take into account any roadblocks for the day.
AI typically works on data that has been fed and looks for patterns and similarities, which then help it, make decisions about certain matters. It is safe to say that AI may be of great help in some areas but one needs to carefully assess the information they are obtaining. There is no clear evidence that artificial intelligence fully understands emotional intelligence, although this is an upcoming area. The technology used in the right manner is definitely beneficial and can do so much good while saving time, it just needs to be used wisely, otherwise, this powerful tool can end up causing more destruction and taking the power away from us. The power of personal care and touch, the power of thinking and understanding, the power of hard work and perseverance.
Therefore, AI is a powerful tool and gives us great authority to achieve things that are greater and which we may not have been able to before, however, it can also lead to a lot of destruction if we solely rely on it. And… there are a lot more advancements and breakthroughs that are waiting, but not for AI, it will depend on the human mind too.
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