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Artificial intelligence (AI) is something we are getting more and more of. Many people fear technological development. The fear is that jobs will disappear and that people will lose control of developments. This fear is reminiscent of the prophecy many people made in the 1990s, when personal computers arrived in full force. Is there any reason to fear AI, or will it become a natural part of everyday life for most people?

What is artificial intelligence?

I asked the question to ChatGPT. In the blog, I don’t normally use AI to any great extent until now. I’ve generated some images using the technology, but I haven’t used it to design text.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field of computer science and technology that focuses on creating machines and systems that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. This includes the ability to learn, reason, plan, understand language, recognize patterns, make decisions and adapt to new situations.

There are several types of AI, from narrow (or weak) artificial intelligence, which is designed to perform specific tasks, to general artificial intelligence (AGI), which is more ambitious and aims to mimic the broader, more flexible cognitive ability of humans.

Examples of AI today include:

• Machine learning: A method in which systems learn from data to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform them. An example is recommendation systems on streaming services or online stores.
• Natural language processing (NLP): Technology that enables machines to understand and generate human language. This is the basis for digital assistants such as Siri or ChatGPT.
• Image and speech recognition: AI systems can analyze and identify objects in images, or transcribe and understand speech.
• Autonomous systems: AI is also used in self-driving cars, drones and robots that can navigate and make decisions on their own.

From medical diagnostics and financial analysis to art and entertainment, AI is rapidly evolving and becoming more integrated into everyday life.

Will AI take away jobs?

As I said in my introduction. Many people fear today, as they did in the 1990s, that technology will take away huge numbers of jobs. What happened when PCs became commonplace at home and in most offices was that technology changed a lot. Some jobs disappeared and others were created as a result of technology. For example, a number of secretaries disappeared. Pure typing was replaced by PCs and templates where all you had to do was fill in names. In my former profession in banking, a number of customer service staff also disappeared over time. Now a large part of customer service is done digitally. Many people who used to sit at counters to process queues of customers have now moved to offices.

AI will probably reshape working life in the same way. Some jobs will disappear, others will be added. For example, AI can be a tool for journalists. We will see self-driving cars, buses and planes in a few years. Such future prospects may seem frightening to many.

I’m not afraid of technology. It’s coming anyway, we just have to learn to use it for our own good. In my blog, I will probably use AI to an increasing extent. Not to paste text, but as an aid. I’ve used AI-generated images to illustrate this blog.

Sources:

https://openai.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence

https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence