Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, is the technology computers and machines possess that enables them to simulate human learning, thinking, comprehension, problem-solving, decision-making, creativity, and autonomy. If I would define artificial intelligence for myself, it would be something that makes machines or computers do what humans can also do in terms of things that require human intelligence. Unlike humans, however, the processes AI does to make its own decisions would be way faster and more efficient. This intelligence can be developed and learned from training or learning from large amounts of data provided by us humans, otherwise known as machine learning.

Despite having existed for nearly 70 years already, AI is experiencing an impressive growth right now since there have been many breakthroughs in technology. These breakthroughs include new deep-learning algorithms that have reached great accuracy in image categorization, speech recognition, and automatic driving. Additionally, quantum and edge computing have also become prevalent, which allow AI to analyze massive amounts of data simultaneously, increasing its speed as a result, and enabling real-time decision-making processes. Furthermore, due to the influx of data availability, AI models have many opportunities for learning in different formats including text, photos, and sensor data.

Firstly, AI models still can’t be internally creative on their own in terms of pretty much anything. This is essentially because AI models are only trained on data that are already available and not new ones that just appeared. Although there might be some instances where AI models could generate images and audio, these are with guidance from humans and not rooted in themselves. Another downside of AI models is that they don’t feel empathy, sympathy, or anything that shows human emotions. Within chatbots, some people might get something along the lines of “I’m very sorry for your loss,” etc. Although this does show some form of emotions, the technology is not sorry at all since it has no sense of emotions and feels “robotic” in a sense. The last downside of AI models is their inability to explain their decisions. Sometimes when you give a picture of a strawberry, the AI model knows that that image is the strawberry fruit. However, sometimes people want to understand the logic behind why it is rendered as the “strawberry fruit” and the answers to this could be all over the place.

Robots are applied to many different sectors of our lives. For instance, take the industry sector. Industries now are widely using robotic arms to further enhance efficiency compared to humans. These robots are used to pick up things and place them on conveyor belts, disassemble parts, assemble parts, etc. all without the sense of being tired like humans. Another sector is in military and logistics. These robots are sent to the battlefield to transport ammunition, food, and plenty of items to soldiers in areas out of reach from convenient transportation. In addition, without the risk of getting shot. The last sector would be the life and entertainment sector. Some robots would deliver you food, play you music, become a reminder, and many more.

I think that the convergence of artificial general intelligence and fully autonomous robotics is imminent considering the countless amount of breakthroughs in technology that have happened. Additionally, this would have a big impact on the world and humans, both in a positive and negative sense. On one hand, this integration could then lead to better efficiency and reduce some weaknesses that human labor has by replacing them with AI and robotics. On the other hand, this could also mean that it could slowly sweep away human labor as a result, leading to little to no human labor required whatsoever. However, I am very interested in how the future would look like with AI and robotics being widely integrated.