Artificial Intelligence - Utopia vs Dystopia

The views and ideas expressed through this post are my own, and do not represent the policy or opinion of my employer, colleagues or associates.

I recently attended an event where I heard an inspiring keynote from Gurgit Singh of TEDx Glasgow about entirely new approaches to the future of creative thinking and problem solving. My favourite part of the day was a 'mashup session’ where developers, designers, and consultants tackled 10 challenging topics impacting businesses today, including Augmented vs. Virtual Reality, the “Future of Currency”, Dual-Velocity design, and more in future posts to come. I chose the Artificial Intelligence group titled “The Bot and the Human - Blended Intelligence." I hoped the diverse blend of business, creative and technological minds would bring unique perspective on the complex issue of AI - I was not disappointed.

It quickly became apparent that there were polarised opinions, split across whether people took a utopian or dystopian view toward AI. Undeniably AI is going to have an instrumental impact on the way we live and work in the future. Despite what some might claim, right now, nobody has all the answers. But, like with any new wave of technology, the opportunities and challenges it presents is sparking very interesting discussion.

 Over the next 3 posts I’ll try to condense some of the things I have been hearing and thinking about when it comes to AI. I’ll kick-off by tackling one area which I think is still dividing opinion…

 WHY IS AI IMPORTANT?

"the pace of change will never again be as slow as it is today"

 Three converging factors of modern life have made AI more relevant than ever now: 

1. The ever increasing abundance of data around us means that there is more information than we can possibly process and comprehend as un-assisted humans. Reportedly, 2.5 exabytes (2.5 billion gigabytes) of data is created everyday – and this is only expected to accelerate (Adeptia has a great infographic here).
2. The pace of change is getting faster. As Abbie Walsh, FJORD MD, paraphrased from Moore’s Law, "the pace of change will never again be as slow as it is today". This means that if we are struggling to cope with the amount of information around us today, it's only going to become more challenging unless we enhance our abilities with AI.
3. The increasing number of digital touchpoints such as mobile devices, wearables, connected homes and cars, and the omnipresent Internet of Things (IoT) means that there is even more of a requirement to ensure efficiency in the way in which we consume and use data.

 Whether you see this as a deluge or a wave of opportunity, digital tools give us a vessel to stay above the wave and AI becomes the engine to power us in front of the crest. It's up to us to face into the challenge and decide whether it's a lifeboat or a speedboat. I'll out line the challenges in my next post, but what do you think they are?