Inevitable rise of AI: opportunity more than a threat

The inevitable rise of artificial intelligence (AI) all across the world has become a hot debate topic recently.

On one hand, people are happy that it can help get hours-long tasks completed in a matter of minutes but on the other, they foresee massive layoffs and unemployment because it has the potential to render a huge amount of the skilled workforce useless.

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Although AI has been in focus for the past few decades or more, it gained renewed traction following the release of ChatGPT late last year.

ChatGPT was then seen as revolutionary technology that could counter years and years of experience and education.

In reality, skilled workers hailing from the technology, education, research and related sectors feel threatened by AI and fear that their jobs are at stake.

While only time will tell how true this notion is, one thing is clear – AI will soon play a bigger role in the everyday lives of people.

As technology hits new peaks every day, it is becoming increasingly difficult not to incorporate it in our daily lives. Just a few years ago, people brushed off the notion that Internet of Things (IoT) will play a big role in the everyday lives of people.

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Today, a large amount of the population uses it.

Smartphones, laptops, smartwatches, VR kits and virtual assistants all use IoT to simplify things. Similarly, AI is also set to revolutionise the lives of people now.

Battle of chatbots

The release of ChatGPT put all tech companies in action and some of them moved to introduce their own AI-based alternate while others subscribed to ChatGPT to use it on their platforms.

Google’s parent company Alphabet is rushing to introduce its own AI bot, Bard. However, it seems that will take a considerable amount of time to materialise as it is still making errors in its responses. China’s Baidu launched its chatbot Ernie today, it was reported.

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Failure to roll out smooth AI tools is dragging down the shares of some respective companies. This reflects the importance that is given to AI by investors and companies alike.

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Amid these developments, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, recently launched a more advanced version of its chatbot, GPT-4 boasting a catalogue of new features.

This then sent social media in a ruckus as more jobs were threatened. While jobs might be at stake, the demand for AI professionals and related skills is also expected to spike. Instead, humans and AI will have to work hand-in-hand in the future for the betterment of mankind.

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Very soon, AI will enter banking, automobiles, telecom, cybersecurity and other sectors in an effort to aid the public.

This does not necessarily mean that human resources in these sectors will be made redundant. However, some layoffs can be foreseen.

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In addition, the tech based companies are seeing the highest amount of layoffs in the past few months due to plunging business, not necessarily connected to AI.

Being tech focused firms, AI is not helping them replace laid off workers or to turn around their revenues, rather, its proving to be a challenge for them to excel in the AI arena. This shows that AI is less likely to impact employment in the next 3-5 years. However rapid advancement can dent it.

Human-AI interaction

Recently, it was discovered that AI can detect cancer in the very early stages in humans and very soon, it will be used in the medical sector, assisting doctors in reducing the number of steps needed for cancer detection and diagnosis as well as speeding up its treatment.

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This definitely served as a lesson humanity to work alongside AI rather than resist it, ignoring its inevitable growth and symbiosis in our lives.

On the upside, AI can save prove cost-saving for a consumer, present them with quick solutions and generally make things easier. Looking at AI as a threat will limit its functionality for humans. Given the multitude of AI projects in pipeline, people will have to depend on it in the future much the same way as they depend on IoT right now.

Not far in future, entire business sectors will begin depending on AI to handle complex issues like spam and fraud detection, complain resolution and reviews but it is still far from completely replacing humans entirely in workforce.

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