When the words artificial intelligence are uttered, they generally evoke dramatic images from action movies of robots taking over the world. Movies tend to play upon our fears, and if the box office is any indication, as a society, there is nervousness surrounding artificial intelligence (AI).
The reality is that Hollywood’s overdramatized depiction of AI is far from its actual uses. Even now, AI is used in so many areas of your life that you may not even realize it. It’s in our hospitals, on our cell phones, in our cars, and on our favorite websites.
Many of the modern conveniences that go unnoticed every day are created for us by artificial intelligence. Not only does it make our lives easier, but it has the potential to make critical advancements in important areas such as the medical field.
What is artificial intelligence, and why is it important?
A good starting place might be clarifying what exactly AI is and what role it plays in our everyday lives. Artificial Intelligence, according to this IBM article, is an intelligent technology that has the ability to adapt and make decisions, much like a human being.
The adaptability is likely what frightens people, the fear that at some point artificial intelligence will outsmart human beings. This, however, is unlikely and technology is far from that point. In reality, artificial intelligence works to take on some of the tasks humans don’t want to do or do things that they can’t.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is important because it allows us to automate many critical processes and improve both the efficiency and the effectiveness with which we complete tasks. Fields that benefit from advances in AI include medicine, finance, and entertainment, among many others.
Artificial intelligence is all around you. While you may not notice, it exists everywhere: it runs your GPS, is the online chatbot that helps you on a website, and even runs the behind-the-scenes of your social media accounts.
In a more serious role, it only is making medical discoveries that have and could save lives in the future. These applications of artificial intelligence are only a few of the reasons that AI must be prioritized as an important area of advancement.
Why do we need artificial intelligence?
While there will always be people who feel like more traditional methods of life are better for society, there is no doubt that there has been progress that would have been impossible without these technological advancements.
If we’re going to continue to reach our full potential, artificial intelligence will have to play a role. This technology makes room for human beings to spend their time on more creative pursuits, while it saves valuable time that would otherwise be spent doing time-consuming tasks.
Medicine
The fact that AI has the ability to save lives, should be convincing enough to the skeptic. Within the medical field, AI has already made advancements that would have been impossible only 10 years ago. According to Harvard’s “Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: Applications, implications, and limitations” by Daniel Greenfield, artificial intelligence will likely change the way the medical field functions.
Greenfield’s article details the ways in which AI can contribute to medicine, primarily through learning algorithms that can ultimately diagnose or find shortcuts to finding health-related information about a patient. For example, AI has recently learned how to “analyze chest radiographs and detect abnormal cells.” This could provide people with faster test results, leading to a diagnosis and care at a much faster rate–something that is critical in cases of disease.
Technology doesn’t always serve to take over the tasks of medical professionals. It also serves as a backup to double-check the doctor’s analysis in an efficient way. Even though medical professionals study extensively for years, there is the potential for human error, which does contribute to the loss of life each year.
Once AI learns an algorithm, it is not perfect, but has a lower chance of being mistaken in its results. They can also lead doctors to a more efficient diagnosis by bringing attention to irregularities in a patient’s test results.
Business
In an entirely different vein, artificial intelligence contributes valuable resources to the business world. Smart organizations will and have already started preparing to adapt as the field changes in the face of technological advances. Deloitte, one of the top consulting firms in the world, even has a page on its website dedicated to sharing articles about AI and how it relates to business.
Business News Daily reiterates the fact that artificial intelligence is generally seen as a support to human work in their article, “How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Business” by Adam Uzialko. Specifically, with regards to cybersecurity and fraud detection, there are areas of AI that do not infringe on the work of businesspeople, rather take over tedious jobs and complete them more efficiently than any human could. The article also details the ways in which artificial intelligence has improved the customer experience. It can better manage communication between an organization and its customers, saving time and energy that can be utilized elsewhere.
Uzialko’s article additionally references the financial advancements that AI has introduced to the business world. Online banking frequently utilizes artificial intelligence but also impacts more specific banking features.
The example Uzialko mentions is that some banks will send a message to their mortgage loan customers as they walk by a branch to invite them into the bank to renew their upcoming payments. These kinds of reminders can save people time and money.
Education
Education implements artificial intelligence in a slightly different manner than medicine and business do. Mostly AI works with EdTech to make the lives of teachers, administrators, and districts easier. AI can be seen in standardized tests or programs that change the level of difficulty for a student based on the student’s answers.
With standardized tests, the algorithm has learned to adapt as the student answers questions correctly or incorrectly, analyzing their levels of knowledge down to specific educational standards.
This technology can also be incredibly effective when assessing students with learning disabilities or reading deficiencies, pinpointing the exact area that is causing a student trouble. While teachers and specialists can perform these assessments manually, it again saves valuable time that can be spent working on interventions for students or developing lessons.
While there are questions within the world of education regarding what role technology should play in the classroom, sites like Khan Academy and Vocabulary.com provide teachers with helpful tools and support.
This was particularly helpful during e-learning. Teachers were able to provide students with easily accessible tools that are designed to assist students in their learning. Adaptability is the critical component in this area of artificial intelligence.
Convenience
The last area of importance lies in the world of convenience. It is irrefutable that artificial intelligence has not made our lives easier. It runs our Alexas, helps us navigate to a friend’s house, and makes our social media experiences tailored directly to our interests and needs.
While this area is perhaps the least impactful in a large way, combined it gives humans hours of their days back, allowing them the time to do other things.
Conclusion
Now, more than ever, technology has changed the way that human beings interact and absorb information. It cannot be ignored that AI has contributed valuable information to society and given us one of the most valuable times: more time.
With this time, humans can actually focus on facing issues of environmental or political strife, tackling social issues, or simply spend more time with their loved ones. AI will only continue to grow in its involvement in our world, it will be up to us to determine how we will use it for good.
