How Will Artificial Intelligence Impact Our Lives?

To a certain extent, right now, we are all exposed to some type of AI. Whether it is our phones, our computers, the banking systems we use, video games people play to have fun, the list could go on and on…

But the truth is that what we are experiencing right now might be just the tip of the iceberg for what is to come. A lot of people are already making their bets on their theories about what the future might look like when we have acquired the use of artificial intelligence at a greater scale.

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New Frontiers

One of the first area that comes to mind when talking about AI, is the medical field. Health seems to be on the list of top priorities when it comes to artificial intelligence and its benefits. Currently, there are many studies which been carried out on how can artificial intelligence better our lives in terms of our health, such as being able to cure incurable diseases, help people live longer, eradicate or edit parts of our own genes to better ourselves and get rid of unwanted characteristics.

For example, the Neuralink dispositive created by Elon Musk, which intends to cure some disabilities such as spinal cord injuries and restore motor and sensory function, and finally provide treatment for some neurological disorders.

Source: https://www.techweekmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/neuralink.jpg

Social Media

Social media is part of our daily lives. We use it to share and communicate with others about what we think and feel. We can also make purchases for whatever is that we want, and then we get it shortly after, at our doors. It has become a very important part when it comes to influencing people’s ideas and mentality.

It is also reshaping our brains. The information revolution has hit hard on the global population like never before in history, especially for the Millennial and Gen-Z generations. The full impact of how much we will change as a society when the subjects are socializing and interacting with the real world, is still to be seen in the next couple of years.

Source: https://www.thebrandonagency.com/images/_blogImages/GenZ_MediaConsumption.jpg

For example, many parents of today are still more worried about the dangers of the outer world than of the dangers of the internet for their kids; it’s important to remember that many security barriers had to be sacrificed in the name of innovation when all of these different platforms were created.

53% of American children own a smartphone by age of 11; these new generations are having to deal with certain kinds of problems faster and faster, depending on how young they get to come in contact with technology like this. Today’s social media is specifically designed to interact with our brain chemistry and make us become addicted to it.

One example is the technique of “pull to refresh”, a feature that most social media apps have, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. this operates just like a slot machine in the sense that it has the same kind of addictive qualities that keep people addicted to the slot machines in Las Vegas.

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Nature

A really important subject and something that I’ve noticed which doesn’t grab that much attention is nature itself. How is our environment being impacted right now with all of these new technologies and how will it continue to evolve with them as well?

For most of right now, we are aware of the damage that most industries have done to our planet. We have the fashion industries killing animals for the fur, poisoning water with the residues of garment coloring, and many more. Then the food industry of course, where the water footprint is the highest on the planet.

The term “water footprint” is used to indicate the amount of fresh water that any given process or activity uses. Growing and processing crops and livestock consumes large quantities of water; therefore, the water footprint of food is high. Animal products, especially, like meat, dairy and eggs (all of which tend to require more water than fruits, vegetables and beans) have an even higher water footprint. Individually speaking, one’s diet makes up the largest part of one’s personal water footprint. This is why preventing food waste individually matters: because discarded food not only wastes the water that went into producing it, but all other resources involved, as well.

Footprint Organzation 

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A study released in 2019 by MIT Technology Review found that training a “regular” or normal AI by using a single high-performance graphic card has the same carbon footprint as a flight across the United States. Training a more sophisticated AI was even worse, pumping five times more CO2 into the atmosphere than the entire life cycle of an American car, including its manufacturing.

So there is definitely a lot that we have to figure out about what is the best approach to take, so that we don’t have to sacrifice, once again, our natural world in the name of “science” and “progress”. The ideal thing would be to develop processes that allow us to work in harmony with the natural cycle of nature that can help both AI and nature to evolve and grow naturally, without affecting each other in negative ways.

Source: https://media.wired.com/photos/5f20a268a0678d15fe4c7880/master/pass/OpEd-Singapore-1152587062.jpg

What’s Next?

These big changes are happening right at this second, so it can be hard to fully grasp what the next 50 to 60 years will be like. The most important thing is to remember to take care of the core of our existence at all times while we are working on developing these new technologies, and that core is; our bodies, our environment, the respect we have for the natural processes of evolution, and growth in all human and nonhuman aspects.

Let me know what you think in the comment section! What do you think the future will look like? Would you like to be part of the teams that are building these new technologies? Do you find it exciting, scary or interesting?

Sources:

FORBES | Why We Should Care About The Environmental Impact Of AI

Energy andMIT | Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP

Foodprint | The Water Footprint of Food