Taking AI Forward
I am talking about the time when purchases happened face-to-face. Oh wait, they still do happen. A product hunt today has become easy. Purchases can now happen online. Reviews, recommendations, and price comparisons have always been there. AI today is helping to take the next leap. That already gives us enough information to decide what has stayed and what has changed. Did the markets disappear? No. The way we make decisions has changed. As we can see, markets have stayed, products have stayed, and human needs have stayed. The speed, scale and the way we access the information has changed and that leading to how we take the decisions.
Taking a photo involved film rolls. After all the photos were taken, we had to take the roll to a studio and wait a few days to see the results. Then digital cameras arrived and photos could be seen instantly. Now, smartphones capture pictures and also give us options to enhance them. Where are the film rolls and dark rooms today by the way? We hardly see the postman, but more delivery riders are on the roads. We don’t need to ask for directions anymore. We have GPS systems, but we still rely on asking strangers for directions rather than completely relying on technology.
The written letters once took days to deliver. Parcel delivery still takes days. Searching for information once required long exploration. Real research still needs long investigation. Learning a new skill once required finding the right teacher. True mastery still requires guidance and practice. Sending money once required visiting a bank. Trust in transactions still takes time to build. Booking a ticket for a journey once required standing in long queues. Even now, travel takes its own time.
Do you see all these things do not come with a single pattern? Or do they? AI is attempting to do that. When people speak about artificial intelligence, the conversation usually happens around algorithms, computing power, and data. Most are still trying to figure out what AI is and how it looks like. We all know it has benefits. These are undeniably important, and they form much of what we see on the surface. Along with faster computations, humans must decide the direction that AI action must move towards.
Everybody brings their own pool of experiences and perspectives to the table, and from that they attempt to place their predictions about where AI is heading. Cautious, optimistic, and speculative are the kinds of discussions we are having around AI. Individual predictions alone do not shape the direction of AI. The AI market is rather influenced and grounded by the needs and demands of society. As technology has aided in solving real problems of people and organizations, AI technology will continue to do the same. While opinions and forecasts create discussion, it is ultimately the demands of society, industries, and everyday users that determine where AI advances and where it finds its place.