How long will Artificial Intelligence remain artificial?

"I believe there is no deep difference between what can be achieved by a biological brain and what can be achieved by a computer. It therefore follows that computers can, in theory, emulate human intelligence — and exceed it." - Stephen Hawking

Technological innovations have been at the heart of development since the 1940s. Each wave of technological change ushered in opportunities for mankind to move to the next phase of human evolution. John McCarthy, the father of Artificial Intelligence (AI), was one of the harbingers of change in the 1950s. The objective behind his inquisitiveness was to discover techniques to make a machine that could think like a human, and was capable of autonomy, problem-solving and self-development.

If an algorithm could mimic our minds, fix every problem and make every move error-free, would we then really need a person to do anything? The reference made here is to a higher and more developed form of AI - Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), the technology that will take machine learning (ML) and deliver its potential. Essentially, the machine will be able to make decisions on its own without any intervention or guidance from humans. What we don’t know is how the most advanced algorithms do what they do. And, that is a problem. The more data we give to the machines, the better it gets.

But, the big question remains. Are we ready to accept that the virtual world is the new reality?

AGI, in the near future, could make career options, such as medicine, law, operations, and finance, among others, a lot less rewarding monetarily. Robotics, automation and artificial intelligence, according to an Oxford study, will lead to a loss of nearly 47% white-collared jobs in twenty years. A future in which humans are replaced by machines has already become a reality at a consulting firm in India, where more than 9000 employees have been laid off and replaced with an artificial intelligence system. The AGI that we see in the movies where alien-like robots take over the planet and destroy the whole world is very different from the less-evolved AI that we use across industries now.

I call this trend, the digital world order. Organizations and individuals are at the cusp of the biggest yet (nearly) inscrutable transformation ever. The ones that able to rapidly respond to these opportunities will seize the advantage in the AI-enabled universe. The only strategy is to be nimble and receptive. Our tech progress has brought about a sea change, and it’s time we pulled our heads out of the sand.