Artificial Intelligence is here — brace for the new world. While many of us are struggling with tasks like waiting in lines, on customer service calls, still wasting time in filling forms, and digging for information, there is a new world emerging, which in aiming to take away all these mundane activities and give us time back, a valuable and scarce asset, especially to humans, as mortal beings.
It is a unique time when both the new and old are existing side by side. I have a rumba, a machine for vacuuming, though intelligent, it is really quite stupid and does not replace my cleaning service by any measure. Similarly, we all have our experiences of Siri and Alexa, which still seem buggy on voice recognition, ultimately, forcing us to resort to old ways.
So, what does this mean — it indicates that change is coming. Historically, we have learned how the internet changed how we live and work today. Likewise, artificial intelligence will change how we live and work in the future.
While the internet came after the industrial revolution, its main objectives were to increase productivity. Today, we can achieve many tasks quickly but have a tech and data overload. We all have days where we are in front of a screen for the most part of the day. Is this a viable human condition? Did we industrialize the internet?
I believe artificial intelligence is coming at a time where it can further enhance our productivity, reduce data overload and save us a lot of time that we spend on machines, away from our natural social habitat. Nearly everybody is feeling more disconnected with connected machines.
Agreed, there are perils to artificial intelligence, there is much discussion that it will take away many jobs, it will take over the planet and end the civilization.
The question is — will it be another human breakthrough, which will bring us time to use the creative side of our brains which only works best in less clutter and distractions. Have the millennials, who are digital natives, infamous in corporate circles for empathy figured out something about how the new age work would look like?