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Amid a rampant debate over the grim and self-destructive consequences of artificial intelligence, science itself has grown factorially with new angles developed from time to time. Artificial Intelligence is the answer for answering all questions; it is a precision instrument with memory and purpose. If practice makes a man perfect, then AI must already be perfect. The mechanical repetition of success coupled with the elimination of faults without fatigue makes it a near-ideal technology in a curious and confused world.
Artificial Intelligence, with roots in the German coding machine, the Enigma; has quickly risen to challenge human intelligence. The Enigma was developed in the First World War by German scientist Arthur Scherbius, as a cipher machine. While Enigma was just a repetitive motor, the developments to follow formed the basis for learning machines or AI.
Of late, the capacity of AI for ‘imagination’ or simulation is deeply incorporated in the techniques of research and development. Such simulations have even exceeded prior expectations. In a study presented by a team from Flatiron Institute, led by Shirley Ho and Siyu He, at the proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA, it was stated that in the simulation of the universe by AI, extraordinary accuracy and speed were recorded. Moreover, the simulation also adjusted for varying factors, such as changed gravity, without any data or input about the same. The example brings to perspective how both large-scale and infinitesimal phenomena can be brought to the plane of our observation. A direct exposure to the nascent universe or dynamic cell systems is made possible by AI Medical and biological sciences are routinely explored and improvised by machines with data beyond human contemplation. The identification of pathogenic traits and mutation has significantly benefitted from simulation research.
While machine learning developed under the stress of research, it has expanded rapidly into the socio-economic components of routine life. AI has learned, to some extent, how to identify human objectives, comfort and preference, in what is surely amongst its greatest achievements. A rapidly evolving and diversifying society is well-matched by this gregarious technology.
Soon, delivery paths, song playlists, sleep schedules, diet, diplomacy and even the more violent ventures of conflict and war would lean more on man-made instinct. Indeed, the great bane of such a technology is its lack of the innate features of self-morality, freedom and truth. And how would we deal with our camera phones demanding rest and retirement benefits?
For AI, there is no barrier in the world, only an intrinsic one. Convergent with these limits, it can become aggressively interactive and supportive to the masses, once it becomes abundant enough. It may even become more than just an echo; it may develop a voice. It may gain sentience. But if it achieves sentience before learning righteousness, it could well retaliate and argue. For now, it is a mystic tool, a mythological spear that pierces a target on its own.
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