The Great AI Debate: Boon or Bane
What on God's Green 🥗 Earth 🌐 is AI?
Hello dear innovator,
Last week, we enjoyed a great conversation about the artificial intelligence industry, but again, we had to highlight the female players in the game.
Anyhoo, you know what time it is! It's innovation o'clock! And on today’s issue, we have a guest that could easily win the buzz of the year award, in the studio with us. Our guest has traveled the world, proffered solutions, saved lives, and has survived its fair share of challenges.
Consonance: Ladies and gentlemen of the Consonance community, please make welcome, popularly known as AI👏👏Artificial intelligence!
Artificial intelligence: Thank you, Thank you 🙇. Thanks for having me 😁
Consonance: It's our pleasure. How is your day going?
Artificial intelligence: Well, it’s been just the usual, having to do brilliant tasks and feature in spaces previously suited for only humans 😊. Honestly, my day is going great so far, and I'm also getting featured in Consonance’s newsletter so it couldn't get any better.
Consonance: Once again, it’s our pleasure 😊. Hmmm... You've had quite an eventful career won't you say?
From working in self-driving cars, to accurately tracking female menstrual cycles and assisting humans through Google Assistant to name a few.
A.I: Yes 👍 it’s been a crazy ride 🚕 of course the waves 🌊 rage at times too, but I’m not an easy pushover. The job is very fun because I always get to work with models and they are a great support system; if you know what I mean *wink* *wink*
Consonance: Let’s take a look at the journey so far with those rides of achievement and some challenging waves 🌊. Shall we?
Consonance & Artificial Intelligence:
Before we dive 🏊in, if we don't have a good laugh from tech Twitter, is it really Saturday 🤷?
That Apple face gets me every time 😂 it's been two days since I saw it and I'm not even close to getting over 🚧 it 🤣🤣.
I don’t mind one more 😂, today is all about AI anyway.
The advent of AI has not only improved our experience with technology but has also amplified the possibilities of humanity. However, some say everything that has an advantage, also has its disadvantage and they believe the same is true for AI.
A political commentator, who is known for her bias towards a particular brand, by virtue of what she stands for got pranked real good.
Her co-workers played a recording generated by a company named Eleven labs Prime AI, where she confessed her undying love for the products of the very brand she is against. She listened in shock 😲 as she contradicted what she had taken a stand against in her decade-long career in 2 minutes.
Funny 😄 right?
That confession could be a lethal weapon in the hands of an ignorant or malicious opposing party, don’t you think 🤔?
This reason and many more are why AI and people who work in the industry find themselves in hot water 💦 more often than not. Today we’ll explore both sides of the AI debate.
The Pros
First of all, it is a technological tool, so it is arguably more efficient than humans in delivering tasks.
It does not take breaks, nor does it work in shifts, but it delivers optimally under the required conditions.
Now people can talk to Alexa in ways that traditional Nigerians could ask “No be Juju be dis?”
User: Alexa play me Monalisa
Alexa: 🎶O baby follow my commanding like zombie 🧟…🎶
Now humans and machines chit-chat like it’s no man’s business. Steve Jobs could have given his balls… EYE BALLS! to get to experience this.
However, there is one thing that humans might not understand, and this could easily make AI a boon. AI helps reduce costs in running a business, and this is because it automates tasks that would otherwise require human labor.
Critics still say “That's what humans get for trying to be allies and partners with A.I”. You wanna know what's also a saying? “Haters are gonna hate, potatoes are gonna potate…”
The appellation “Human Computer” given to Katherine Johnson a Mathematician who worked on the moon landing with NASA was a result of her speed and accuracy in calculations.
I said this, to say that humans are accurate, but AI doubles the accuracy. No wonder a typical student fancies having a calculator for Math and physics classes.
I don't know about you, but I love ChatGPT, especially how I can personalize my experience on it. Personalization is a big deal and AI gets the fact that no two humans are the same and your experience can be shaped based on your preference and behavior.
AI keeps getting better by the day and arguably every sector benefits from its scalability, continuous learning, and improved safety to name a few.
It pays to have AI analyze vast amounts of data than to bother your overworked employees with the burdensome responsibility. It's called outsourcing 😄 and AI does not mind taking up one more task for you.
The Cons
AI risks competing with humans for jobs and economic resources as a result of its vast proficiency. The unknown fear remains “Can this thing outsmart its creators?”
This question is yet to be answered, as we are all observers in this world of the continuous success of AI.
A key disadvantage of AI is human Job displacement. The efficiency and accuracy do not pass for just excellent, sometimes they come at the expense of the jobs done by humans. It's just technology, right? A drone has now replaced the helicopter pilot 👨✈️and the Camera 📸 man😊 in a matter of years. (No big deal 🤝, it's just two people in easily substitutable positions).
Extremists say that “AI robbed humans right under their noses 👃, while they stood by, applauding 👏👏”. Activities previously done by humans no longer have a human touch to them.
The machines have no human feelings and therefore lack empathy in their interaction. It would be great if programmers can get AI to understand and process human emotions. Or would it?
Surprise! Surprise! AI is limited to the amount of information you give it access to. Phewwww, finally 😁 a limitation!
As is only reasonable, AI can't know what you don't tell it, duh! You should know that AI is inevitably subject to the bias of its programmers who design the algorithm and data scientists who feed the AI with data. If I strongly believe that short people shouldn’t hold leadership positions or have a place in society, it is only expected that my designs mirror my convictions. The bias of these engineers is considered a major con especially where Africa is concerned, therefore we need to better understand how these affect us as a continent.
The intelligence systems are updated and trained on the algorithms and models required for them to function. Systems could easily go out of date, thereby indicating a need to be updated, without which there might be system malfunctions.
There are ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI and it is a matter of trust. Can AI be trusted as transparent and accountable, while also keeping users’ data private?
This is indeed what artificial intelligence is. Intelligent 🧠🤓, but artificial.
Boon or Bane?
We believe we've done a fine job of laying the points before you, now the choice is yours. Is AI a boon or a bane?
With these few points of ours, we hope we have been able to … (finish it for us)
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