Robotics and AI, Your Place in This World

You should see the Avengers 2019 spoiler, Tony Stark’s suit is human now! You got to believe and its replacing captain America just as how artificial general intelligence is going to replace humans.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, we clamoured for a means to do things better and faster, admittedly, we are lazy and we needed something or someone to perform those hectic tasks for us―both in our workplace and our daily lives.

However, the solution to this problem is right here and right now, and the average human seems to now identify it as a threat. Efficient means of production, accurate data analysis, automation and many more is what we perceive a threat ― fascinating. We are being delusional and carried away by the buzzword of how Robots and AI will be the end of us.

No offence Forbes.

Search for the keyword ‘Robots and AI’ and the first three result you find is about how Robots are replacing humans, am still on the fence as to whether those headlines attract more views than how we still have a place in the world, despite the existence of Robots and AI.

Truth be told, Robots and AI are not absolutely better than us, they might be programmed to perform tasks better than we do―without experiencing fatigue; they can perform data analysis efficiently―with little or no mistakes. This is amazing, am excited about this disruptive innovation and how it’s going to get more disruptive in the next 10 years.

Genuinely, come to think of it―Robots and AI perform tasks better than we do, no doubt. But they still are incapable of experiencing certain qualitative human traits ― the next 10 years to come, Robots and AI can never be as creative as we are to innovate these things. This is the soft truth and how half-sided it may be, it still remains the truth.

Just before, I dive into our coordinates in the world with the existence of Robots and AI, let’s give this piece of technology some credit by briefly examining how they’ve made our lives easier and how they still are.

A Brief Insight On How Robots And AI Make The World A Better Place

Examining the workspace closely, I have a draft to those who feel they are going to be replaced by Robots and AI. Sit on a couch with a cup of coffee and take a close look at developing and underdeveloped nations.

The citizens of developing nations fair well in terms of standard of living, but relative to what we are focused on, they sure are not bothered about AI or Robots replacing them. This leads to the question of where does that leave the individuals in developed countries.

Without a doubt, the rate of technology advancement in developed countries are spiking, and I don’t see their growth stalling in the next 10 years―this is not a tip to invest in technology stocks.

However, hope still exists if you feel you are about to be replaced by robots and AI and here are how you still get a chance to work.

What Robots and AI Can and Can’t Do

Very much aware of the fact that robots are built to perform tasks, mostly repetitive tasks and they do it better than humans. This case scenario takes place in the manufacturing sector, the truth is―we slow down production process and it affects the overall output of the firm, but replacing humans in this aspect is a validated managerial decision with no further need for arguments. Robots don’t get tired, neither do they get sick, rather they are designed to just perform a particular task in the production cycle.

However, with AI, well, they require data, feed them with data, and you have the Einstein of data analysis right there. But, it’s actually more than this. AI perform lots of tasks and are used in various sector such as the financial sector for stock analysis to determine when it’s best to trade, AI is also applicable in the educational sector for personalised learning, but the ability for AI to possess natural intelligence is what is being reasoned with. This trend in developing AI with natural intelligence is what we now refer to as Artificial General Intelligence(Strong AI). The quest to build a complete human-like AI still serves some doubt as to how impossible or possible it is.

There you go, a brief description as to what Robots and AI can do, examining what they can’t do seems to be the joyous part for you, but without further ado, let’s examine what Robots and AI can’t do and how you stand a chance to survive in the era of these technologies.

On the top of the stack is creativity, building robots and AI to become creative by possessing imaginative thinking does not seem to be possible right now, this gives us power over them―after all, creativity is one of the factors that drive us towards the development of Robots and AI and when they arrive fully, our creativity can still beat them.

Secondly, the ability for AI and Robots to possess complex emotions and respond to them adequately as we do seems impossible, and jobs that require individuals that are capable of managing emotions and able to communicate with individuals emotionally, such as patients in the hospital or as a therapist is another advantage you have over this technology.

Lastly, the AI decision-making process is usually based on probability or the availability of data. However, in a tight situation―which requires critical thinking, a robot is most likely to condemn the situation to a probabilistic failure―quite pessimistic I know. However, humans possess certain key characteristics that can’t be quantified or qualified, but the fact remains that how we react to the situation to deliver a successful result, Robots and AI won’t fair well, not even AGI―we are very much optimistic.

Conclusively, in the era we are, developing skills is what is most important to an individual. Your skills either soft or hard is one major factor that gives you a competitive edge as an individual ahead of AI, henceforth, do not panic at the sight of AI or Robots they make things easier for us but in reality, we can all live together and complement each other to drive towards a better future.

Robotics and AI, Your Place in This World was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.