Debunking AI myths
Artificial Intelligence is a controversial topic : seen as the future of technology by some or as the greatest threat to humankind by others, it is complicated to make an opinion for oneself. At Eva Engines, AI is at the core of our competencies. We have a great team composed of deep learning and machine learning experts who know why AI is safe. We hope that this article will help you get leads for making up your mind about Artificial Intelligence.
MYTH #1 : AI WILL TAKE OUR JOBS
The most rational myth that we hear at Eva Engines is the fact that AI will take our jobs. Sure, just like any invention aimed to reduce human efforts, job destruction usually comes along… As machines get more intelligent and more convenient, they can replace repetitive tasks which are less stimulating for us, even if this is most of the time at the expense of low-qualified workers. So what is even scarier with AI is its ability to potentially also replace highly skilled workers. However, at Eva Engines, we like the term “job transformation” better. Remember : AI is just a tool ! It can help us with some tasks, leaving us more time to focus on other — more important and more elevating — missions. It leads people to focus on more added-value tasks and help them in repetitive and time consuming ones, for low and high-skilled workers. For example AI lets you navigate 1 million images in a few seconds and recognize anything you want. Imagine the time it would take us to do so by hand…
MYTH #2 : ALL AI ARE ROBOTS
People often tend to put AI in a box and think that there is no nuance to it. Robots are always pictured when it comes to it and that is because cultural representations of AI are humanoids. In movies, TV shows but also in pictures to illustrate articles, AI is displayed as a robot, because of its conceptual nature. But it actually has to be noted : there is not “one type” of AI. There are recognition algorithms, generative algorithms, deep learning, machine learning, and so on…There are many different types of algorithms which can be used for many different domains, like images, videos, recommandations, text, speech…
MYTH #3 : AI POLLUTES
Luckily, we are currently witnessing a global awareness around sustainability issues : more and more people are involved and start to be educated about the subject. It has been brought to our attention that our digital practices might not always be green, even if they sometimes save us from undertaking polluting actions (i.e : a Zoom call instead of taking a plane to have a meeting with an international team). Evidently, AI has often been put under the same umbrella and accused of digital pollution.
One of the main challenges of technological innovation is making sure that new tools won’t pollute more than they offer to help. A concept called “digital sobriety” has been developed by The Shift Project, who offered guidelines to ensure a regulated transition. Digital sobriety is a methodology enabling a logical arbitration between opportunities & benefits on the one hand, and risks & downsides on the other. More and more decision-makers are pacing themselves and their company regarding digital tools thanks to, as I said, a globalized realization that it can be polluting. These tools have to be used only if they can help reduce another sustainability issue, not if they are demanding more fossil energy.
MYTH #4 : AI IS JUST A TREND / NICHE
Some think that AI, given its complicated nature, is a really niche tool, that can only be used in very specific segments. Or even, that it is just a trend that will pass, just like any other trend. The fact is : AI has existed for more than 70 years now, it is here to stay and to grow. It has been predicted by QTS that in the next decades, no industry or business segment will be able to completely avoid AI (infoworld.com). Plus, companies whose parts of their value chain are substantially digitized have an advantage in business. With digitization comes with AI, so it would be a really smart move for companies to invest in these tools as soon as possible. AI is simply a new form of automation and reticent businesses will probably feel really outdated and lacking a competitive advantage if they do not jump on the bandwagon.
MYTH #5 : AI WILL BECOME SMARTER THAN MANKIND
This argument is easily debunked because as of today, there are sectors in which AI is already far more intelligent than humans. This is a provocative statement but it ensures that you grasp the concept of “intelligence” : there are such various ways of translating intelligence…Regarding pace of calculation, memory, reading speed, etc : AI is already way better than us. Nevertheless, in areas such as emotional intelligence and long term thinking, keep in mind that AI only goes as far as we let it. You should not be afraid of AI doing things on its own and becoming its own entity. This thought has risen because of AI representation and sentences such as “AI does this”, “AI manages that”…As I have said before : AI is only a tool, it is handled by humans and it is limited by computational power, the capacity of our computers. This grows rapidly, that is for sure. But it is still limited : machines won’t rebel against us anytime soon. Plus, for AI to develop, we need research about it, and yes researchers are hard at work, but the more they learn, the more they discover how much distance they still have to go. I will end with one more fact to reassure you : AI won’t break free in the foreseeable future because algorithms evolve in mathematical frames. Within those mathematical frames, we have total control and algorithms only learn basic language !
All of us at Eva Engines hope that this article widened your thoughts about AI, giving it experts’ perspective. For example, we use AI in all of our softwares, which we develop with the goal of making fashion more sustainable, diverse and digital. You can discover our mission on evaengines.com
Sources :
Déployer la sobriété numérique (par The Shift Project)
https://www.bernardmarr.com/default.asp?contentID=1192
https://www.aimyths.org/
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/ai-myths-debunked/
