MBA Admission Process includes Group Discussion (GD), Extempore, Interview and other Group Exercise. During this process, particularly during MBA GD Round, a topic is given to students to discuss. Read this article to understand one such important topic is: Future of AI (Artificial Intelligence).
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence, which can be perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information, demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by non-human animals or by humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech recognition, computer vision, translation between (natural) languages, as well as other mappings of inputs. Artificial intelligence was founded as an academic discipline in 1956, and in the years since it has experienced several waves of optimism, followed by disappointment and the loss of funding (known as an "AI winter"), followed by new approaches, success, and renewed funding. In recent months ChatGTP and Google’s Bard have created a lot of excitement in this domain to determine What is the Future of Artificial Intelligence. Check table of contents and continue reading.
Table Of Content
- What is Artificial Intelligence?
- AI Impact on Jobs
- AI Concerns; AI Policy by Governments
- Indian Artificial Intelligence Projects
- Artificial Intelligence Pros & Cons
- Will AI Replace Humans or Assist Us?
- Future of Artificial Intelligence
What is Artificial Intelligence?
So, what exactly is Artificial Intelligence or AI? What is AI and how it is shaping the Future? Well Artificial Intelligence refers to the development of computer programs and machines that can perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence, such as recognizing speech, identifying objects, understanding natural language, and making decisions based on data. AI is typically divided into two main categories: narrow or weak AI, which is designed to perform a specific task, and general or strong AI, which is capable of performing any intellectual task that a human can.
AI has numerous applications including in the fields of healthcare, finance, transportation, and education. The latest trends in AI development reflect that the role of AI in the future of health care, AI applications in finance and banking, the impact of AI on marketing and advertising will be immense. The risks and challenges of AI in the future will equally be high. Therefore, the impact of AI on the future of the work cannot be undermined. Even in current scenario one is well aware how AI is shaping the future of education.
Artificial Intelligence is expected to play an increasingly important role in shaping the future of society, with potential benefits including increased efficiency, improved safety, and enhanced decision-making capabilities. However, there are also concerns about the potential risks associated with the development and deployment of AI, such as job displacement, bias, and misuse.
Before we know What is AI and how it is shaping the Future, let us understand AI applications
- Advanced web search engines (e.g., Google Search),
- Recommendation systems (used by YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix),
- Understanding human speech (such as Siri and Alexa),
- Self-driving cars (e.g., Waymo),
- Generative or creative tools (ChatGPT and AI art),
- Automated decision-making, and competing at the highest level in strategic game systems (such as chess and Go).
AI Impact on Jobs
Wider deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technology by India Inc will likely make 15,000-20,000 jobs redundant this year, as a large number of coding profiles, system maintenance and support functions at junior levels get automated.
Consulting firms and recruiters emphasized that companies, especially in the IT, hospitality and banking industry are trying to upskill their workforce, but warned that the advent of AI will lead to retrenchments in the coming months, while employees play catch-up with this sophisticated technology.
Search giant Google is planning to reorganise a large part of its 30,000-strong ad sales unit as a result of the company's recent advances in artificial intelligence, according to a report by The Information. Notably, Google laid off around 12,000 employees earlier this year, making it the biggest job cut in the company's history.
PAYTM has slashed its workforce by relieving an unspecified number of employees, though a few reports put this figure at 'over 1000.'
However, AI is also expected to create new jobs, as more companies manage to upskill the workforce. Ashish Kumar Singh, chief human resources officer at e-commerce firm Meesho, said that it is the call centres where a lot of the customer support work is done by AI. Meesho partners with third parties for its call centre services and some aspects of the calls and first-level chats with customers are undergoing AI implementation. “There are places around analytics and first-level coding where the evaluation is still on …It will mostly be used as a co-pilot in supporting somebody. Immediate job losses I don’t see, but over a very long term, yes,” Singh told Mint.
AI Concerns; AI Policy by Governments
Some experts believe that the phenomenal growth of GenAI models indicates that machines will soon think and act like humans, a trend referred to as artificial general intelligence, or AGI. Some also call it artificial super intelligence, or ASI. Further, these models can plagiarize, be biased, and potentially replace thousands of routine jobs while also posing security and privacy risks. The fear is that if we are unable to fully understand the workings of these unsupervised networks, they could automatically evolve into Syknetlike machines we see in the Terminator movie franchise.
The group of people with this fear includes Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X, formerly Twitter; Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, and AI experts such as Geoffery Hinton and Yoshua Bengio. The other cohort, which includes AI experts such as Yann LeCun, Fei-Fei Li, Andrew Ng, believe that AI is nowhere close to becoming “sentient”.
Despite their differences, all of them agree that AI and GenAI need to be regulated and controlled, and governments around the world are doing so. On 8 December, for instance, the European Union (EU) presented a comprehensive risk-based draft AI Act and is likely to publish the final text in early 2024. The Act seeks to ban biometric categorization systems that use certain sensitive characteristics, and untargeted scraping of facial images from the internet or CCTV footage to create facial recognition, among other things.
Earlier, the Group of Seven (G7), comprising Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, introduced guiding principles and a code of conduct for AI, even as all these countries have draft regulations in place. India is already a founding member of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), an international forum that “aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities”.
India, which has a Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, is soon expected to introduce the Digital India Act (DIA)—the new law is expected to regulate AI and intermediaries, even as the Indian government seeks to strike a fine balance between acknowledging the good in AI and penalizing its misuse.
Indian Artificial Intelligence Projects
In December 2023, Akash Ambani, chairman of India’s largest telecom service provider, Reliance Jio Infocomm, announced a partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay to build ‘Bharat GPT’, an LLM tailored to suit the country’s needs.
The move makes sense since India is home to more than 400 languages, making it one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world, and yet, most foundation models and LLMs are trained primarily using internet data, which is predominantly English.
Likewise, the ‘Nilekani Center at AI4Bharat’ at IIT Madras is building opensource language AI for Indian languages, including data sets, models, and applications. Sarvam AI, a generative AI startup founded by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar (both co-founders of AI4Bharat), is developing LLMs specifically for India— the OpenHathi Series.
Artificial Intelligence Pros & Cons
What are Artificial Intelligence Pros & Cons? Artificial Intelligence (AI) has many potential benefits, but it also poses some potential drawbacks. Here are some of the main pros and cons of AI:
AI Pros:
- Efficiency: AI can process large amounts of data quickly and accurately, allowing it to complete tasks much faster than humans.
- Accuracy: AI can be programmed to make decisions based on objective data and logic, reducing the risk of human error.
- Personalization: AI can be used to personalize experiences and services based on individual preferences and behaviors.
- Safety: AI can be used to monitor and control potentially dangerous situations, such as in manufacturing or transportation.
- Innovation: AI can enable the development of new technologies and solutions that were previously impossible.
AI Cons:
- Job displacement: AI can potentially automate many tasks that are currently performed by humans, leading to job loss and economic disruption.
- Bias: AI systems can be biased if they are trained on data that is not representative of the population as a whole..
- Privacy concerns: AI systems may collect and store large amounts of personal data, raising concerns about privacy and security.
- Dependence: Overreliance on AI systems could lead to a lack of human expertise and decision-making skills.
- Unpredictability: AI systems can be unpredictable, and their decision-making processes may not always be transparent or understandable.
It's important to carefully consider both the potential benefits and drawbacks of AI when developing and implementing AI systems. This will help ensure that AI is used in a responsible and beneficial way.
Will AI Replace Humans or Assist Us?
While AI has the potential to automate many tasks that are currently performed by humans, it is unlikely that it will completely replace human beings in the workforce. Here are a few reasons why:
- AI is currently best suited for narrow or specific tasks, and is less effective in performing tasks that require general intelligence and creativity, such as art, music, and scientific discovery.
- AI still requires human oversight and maintenance. AI systems need to be trained and supervised by humans, and they also require regular updates and maintenance.
- There are certain jobs and tasks that require human interaction and empathy, such as healthcare, counseling, and education. These jobs are less likely to be automated by AI.
- Many people value human interaction and prefer to interact with other humans rather than machines. This is particularly true in fields such as customer service and hospitality.
- There are also social and ethical concerns associated with the replacement of humans with machines. For example, widespread job displacement could lead to economic disruption and social unrest.
Future of Artificial Intelligence
The future of AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a subject of much gossip and debate. AI has already made significant strides in a variety of fields, and it is expected to continue to play an increasingly important role in shaping the future of society. Here are some of the key areas where AI is likely to have a significant impact in the coming years:
- The role of AI in the Future of Healthcare: AI is expected to revolutionize healthcare by enabling more accurate diagnosis, personalized treatment, and more efficient delivery of care. AI-powered systems are already being used to analyze medical images, identify genetic markers, and develop targeted therapies for cancer and other diseases.
- How AI is shaping the future of Education: AI is expected to transform the way that we learn by enabling more personalized and adaptive learning experiences. AI-powered systems can analyze data on student performance to identify areas where individual students need additional support, and provide tailored instruction to help them succeed.
- AI applications in Finance and Banking: AI is already being used in the financial industry to analyze market trends, detect fraud, and develop investment strategies. In the future, AI could also play a role in automating many routine financial tasks, such as loan processing and account management.
- Transportation: Self-driving cars and trucks are expected to become increasingly common in the coming years, as AI-powered systems become more advanced and reliable. This could lead to significant improvements in safety, as well as reduced traffic congestion and emissions.
- Role of AI in Entertainment: AI is expected to play an increasingly important role in the entertainment industry by enabling more immersive and interactive experiences. AI-powered systems can analyze data on user behavior to create personalized recommendations for movies, TV shows, and other forms of entertainment.
In summary, while AI is likely to automate many tasks and change the nature of work, it is unlikely to completely replace human beings in the workforce. It is important for society to consider the potential impacts of AI on the workforce and to develop policies and strategies that can help ensure a smooth transition to a more AI-driven economy.
So, MBA students and aspirants, you must read and understand well the future of Artificial Intelligence, its role and applications in different areas. Even if you fall short of your ultimate objective of scoring CAT 100 %ile, you will still achieve high percentile. So, dream big and stay motivated…!
