AI vs Humans – Let us start by answering the question by quoting Stephen Hawking from his book “Brief Answers to the Big Questions.” – “A super-intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble.”



So that points out that AI is smarter than a human being? So let’s explain the term “Smart”. J.P Guilford, a famous psychologist defines creative thought into two categories – Convergent Thinking and Divergent Thinking. Convergent Thinking is the ability to answer the questions correctly, mainly using memory and logic. While Divergent Thinking is the ability to develop potential answers from a single question with creativity.

When humans consider AI’s thinking ability over humans, they think of convergent intelligence. Having superior memory capacity, complex calculation, data storage, and advanced maths. This is what machines lack. It is the power of imagination or curiosity – the divergent intelligence. On the other side, the most interesting applications of AI is called the generative design. For this, machines have a huge number of data. And asked to come up with hundreds of designs that can meet the criteria. This states its divergent capability.

AI vs Humans – Examples

An architecture software organization, Autodesk wanted to design a new office. So they asked the employees how they see their ideal workplace. The programmers submitted the employees’ answers into the AI, and its generative design capability responded with 1000 blueprints. The human architects took these designs and built the world’s first large-scale office. AI’s divergent capability is the new buzz topic in the market. And there are more stories where the programmers have given computer data or an issue without any explicit instructions, hoping the algorithm will figure out the answer.

AI vs Humans – But here is a doomy example. AI was supposed to land a virtual airplane with minimal force. But AI soon thought that, if it will crash the plane, the force would be so large that it will overwhelm its own memory, giving it a perfect score. So AI crashed the plane, over and over again, killing everyone onboard. This is the kind of thinking that makes AI alarmist.

Another interesting example is a locomotion test. A company developed a simulated robot to travel forward as fast as possible. But instead of building legs and walking in a quick manner, the bot built itself into a tall tower and fell forward. How is growing itself and then falling forward completes the walking process? But it does get the math correct as it covers the horizontal distance pretty quickly. But it is not feasible in our human world. For human perspective, AI failed as it failed to walk. But from the AI perspective, it had completed the task quickly while meeting all the criteria.

AI vs Humans

So, to avoid these kinds of problems in the future, humans and machines need to work in collaboration with each other. Even though automation will lead to redundancy in certain roles. It would be a logical step to assume that if AI is capable of performing the majority of lower-skilled tasks, it will be an economical decision to shift those duties to technology. This doesn’t mean that, we are doomed to a future of humanless workplaces. While automation will be eliminating certain jobs, it is going to create new roles and opportunities for humans to pursue.

It is also important to note how far AI has come, but there are certain areas where we can’t replace humans. Example, a chatbot can handle simple queries, but cannot handle complex situations. Similarly, Automation can prove to be highly effective in identifying an ideal candidate. But the actual hiring process still needs to be human-centric.

AI vs Humans – So, the best way to approach the adaptation of AI in the workplace is to view it from a more holistic perspective. Rather than human and machine working independently, these two should be working in collaboration. For example, automation can process a majority of the repetitive tasks. While seamlessly transferring complex issues to the human employees.

AI can also prove to be highly effective in helping the business leaders making smarter and data-driven decisions. Machines can handle all the data mining process, extracting, identifying and organizing the most relevant information available online. C-Suite can then use this information to project more accurate plans and decisions for the future. This can facilitate greater innovation to those who adopt AI in their respective fields.

Voluntary regulations and Government is also acting up.

Leaders in the AI field have made a point to develop regulations in an attempt to mitigate some of the negative aspects of AI. For example, in Google’s deceleration of ethical principles, the guideline outlines that Google will not design:

Technologies that cause or are likely to cause overall harm. Weapons or other technologies whose principal purpose is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people. Technology that gathers or uses information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms. Technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.

They also laid out seven more principles that would guide the design of AI systems in the future.

AI should be socially beneficial.

It should avoid creating or reinforcing bias.

Be built and tested for safety.

Be accountable.

Incorporate privacy design principles.

Uphold high standards of scientific excellence.

Be made available for use.

Takeaway

As AI becomes faster, smarter and more capable, our lives become more efficient and prosperous. Currently, AI is an unpredictable landscape that can transform our lives. The concept is very exciting but unfamiliar. So, with great change comes potential dangers. What we have learned of the past about exponential technology that it creeps up on us. At one moment, it is a speck in the distant future. And our world is on the edge of a huge transformation. So, let’s be careful about it.

Our previous blog post – Time Intelligence – Artificial Intelligence can help you manage your time