The AI Revolution: Will AI replace humans?

In recent years, the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly popular among workers and corporations. Simply speaking, AI is a computer that thinks, acts, and makes decisions like a human. The idea that a computer system built using human intelligence and data input could replace humans in the workplace is an overwhelming one; concerns over job security are on the rise with the real-time evolution of AI over the past three years. In this article, we will be focusing on the origins of AI, what the benefits are to using AI, the current limits that AI has and finally, will AI replace humans.

Origins of AI

The origins of AI can be traced back to the 1950’s thanks to Alan Turing. He was the first mathematician to propose the idea that computers could not only perform tasks they were told to but also how to build intelligent machines that could use reason and information to make decisions, just like humans. At this point in time, computers were very expensive and could only perform basic tasks based on the input they received. The idea of AI evolved from there and the first conference on the topic of AI was held in 1956 called The Logic Theorist. The conference was unfortunately unsuccessful however, it brought the topic of AI to the frontline, leading everyone to believe AI was possible and would be used in the future. By the 1980’s, due to increased funding, computers could store more information, had become faster, cheaper to use and algorithms were being developed and improved. AI was learning using human input, and evolving thanks to the data input it was receiving. This evolution of AI led to the famous chess match in 1997 where grandmaster Gary Kasparov was beat by DeepBlue, the IBM chess computer program. This was the first time a chess world champion had so publicly lost to a computer. This same year, Windows introduced its first speech recognition software, bringing a new direction for AI. Today, we have AI software like ChatGPT that can write any content, no matter the topic, with simple input from a human.

Benefits of AI

AI has reached the point where it will, and has already, been introduced into the workplace at many organizations across the globe. Some industries, like the financial sector, have already begun implementing the use of AI in their workdays to streamline the workload. Some benefits of incorporating AI into the workplace include:

• Processes and procedures have been streamlined.
• General administrative tasks such as data input and processing can be automated.
• Basic copywriting tasks such as social media posts or E-Mails can be written by AI.
• AI can identify and predict informational trends faster.
• New roles and opportunities will arise in the workplace due to the use of AI.

Limits of AI

Although AI has become a bigger topic of conversation in workplaces around the world, it is still too new to be fully incorporated into everyday life. AI is limited in what it can do due to the limited inputs it has received. Some of the limits of AI include:

• Curiosity: AI cannot currently replicate human curiosity as it is created from humans inputting data into it. AI is not capable of wondering about a topic to learn more about it.
• Ethics: AI is not capable of being able to independently distinguish right from wrong or make decisions regarding the morals of a certain situation.
• Cultural: AI can make basic decisions about data, but it cannot make decisions where understanding the context of a situation matters, such as with culture or tradition.
• Adaptability: AI is not capable of adapting to situations where the conditions have changed; for example, AI can diagnose someone with an illness based on their symptoms, however it cannot treat that person if the recommended treatment options are unavailable.
• Creativity: AI can only replicate what it already knows, it does not have the ability to discover new art styles or find the solution to a scientific anomaly without first receiving instructions or data from humans.
• Regulation: AI is still new in terms of its availability and use on the market, making the regulation of AI very difficult as we cannot predict how AI can be used in the future or how it will evolve. The EU is in works to implement the AI Act which hopes to add some restriction to AI and how it’s used in Europe to protect the public’s right to privacy.
• Restriction: AI learns through human input and interaction, however if that input and interaction is using protected material, such as a copyrighted song, that material is now in the AI’s system and will be used by the AI to learn and help humans write or produce their own songs.
• Criminal use: AI can be used for illegal activity, such as writing malware for programmers. Unfortunately, this cannot be monitored or restricted as precautions put in place by the owners of the AI, such as OpenAI for ChatGPT, can be worked around.

Will AI replace humans?

Currently, AI has reached the point where it can streamline and automate processes and data, however it has not evolved to be able to react and think like a human. As mentioned above, there are still limits to what AI can achieve based on the inputs it receives, whether those inputs are correct or not. Although there are some industries that have already been affected by the introduction of AI in the workplace, many new opportunities will arise. The skills needed in the workplace will evolve to work in conjunction with AI instead of against it. This will require employers and employees to have the necessary skills to use, monitor and work with AI. Roles involving emotional intelligence and creativity will also evolve in future to incorporate the use of AI in the daily work of employers and employees. Overall, AI will not replace humans as it does not have the ability to do so. Skills and roles involving emotional intelligence, cultural sensitivity and intuition cannot be taught to AI.

A quote from Prof. Dr. Ulrich Pfeiffer, ADVIA GmbH, "(Also) in the field of information security, AI will not replace humans - but people who use AI will replace people who don't!"

Conclusion

To conclude, the origins of AI can be traced back to the dreams of Alan Turing; this led to a spike in interest in AI and how computers evolved from performing simple tasks to being able to defeat chess grandmasters in chess games, and writing content based on simple inputs from humans. AI is still evolving and learning, and with it the benefits and limits of AI are changing too. AI is still learning, and predicting how it will be incorporated into daily life in the future is difficult to determine, however we can conclude that AI will not replace humans as it does not have the ability to do so. One thing is clear though, AI is here to stay.