After Years of Advancement, What Are the Things AI Cannot Do Yet?

The evolution took over the world so fast that now when we look back and analyze we observe that a lot has changed over a decade when it comes to computers and technology. Who would have thought that one day AI could diagnose medical conditions, translate languages and transcribe speeches? Artificial Intelligence or AI can surely outshine humans at complicated strategy games, create photo-realistic images and suggest useful replies for ones emails. AI can surpass humans in almost all aspect yet it cannot replace humans entirely.

Machine-learning systems can be duped or confounded by situations they haven’t seen before. A self-driving car gets flummoxed by a scenario that a human driver could handle easily. An Artificial Intelligence system laboriously trained to carry out one task (identifying cats, say) has to be taught all over again to do something else (identifying dogs). In the process, it’s liable to lose some of the expertise it had in the original task. Computer scientists call this problem “catastrophic forgetting.”

Such shortcomings are the reason why AI cannot replace humans yet. Let’s understand further what Artificial Intelligence lacks when compared to human intelligence.

One of the major issues is this space is Narrow AI which doesn’t fit for all. Businesses currently need to rely on individual solutions to perform certain AI-centric tasks. Trying to use a range of different tools to carry out a range of artificially intelligent tasks can become expensive, time-consuming and messy. Artificial Intelligence in any form is artificial and unnatural which requires regular supervision. Businesses are in still very much need to plan, design and run the marketing campaign.

So technically humans are the ones feeding the AI system with all the new information required for them to learn in the first place. This form of ‘supervised learning’ does not mimic the way a human learns naturally and experts believe this is one of the biggest obstacles when it comes to creating a more human-like AI. Artificial Intelligence, after all, is merely a program and it is can only do what it is programmed to do. However, it normally does this extremely well, but unlike a real person, it is unable to make split-second judgments. For example, any good marketer will change or cancel any scheduled messaging when a tragic event occurs. This is because they are capable of showing empathy and compassion to the victims and their families as humans. As a machine, however, Artificial Intelligence does not have any ability to show emotion. Even if the market is buzzing with Emotional AI, yet the technology is far from human emotion.

As noted by a report, like any form of new technology, there can be a significant cost of purchase and a need for on-going maintenance and repair. The AI software will also require regular upgrades in order to adapt to the continually changing business environment. The return on investment needs to be carefully considered by the company before it goes ahead and implements any AI system.

Lastly and more importantly, AI lacks creativity. Machines simply lack the ability to be creative. Unlike machines, humans can think and feel, which often guides their decision making when it comes to being creative. Yes, AI can definitely assist in terms of helping to determine what sort of imagery, for example, a consumer is likely to click on – from color preferences to style and price. But when it comes to originality and creative thinking, a machine simply cannot compete with the human brain. We still need the collaboration of both humans and machines.