Geoffrey Hinton’s dissonant words about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry seem to have opened the floodgates. Over the past fortnight, we have seen more negative articles about the industry than ever before. The important thing is that these criticisms are coming from important people. an article in the Atlantic, ‘AI is about to make social media (much) more toxic’ by Jonathan Haidt and Eric Schmidt: We must prepare now. Formerly Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University Stern School of Business and author of several well-known books. Schmidt is the former CEO and President of Google. In the article ‘AI is a waste of time’ the Atlantic Written by respected journalist Derek Thompson. ‘Will AI become the new McKinsey?’ In the new Yorker Ted Chiang, yet another distinguished journalist. Doug Rushkoff, who in his interview last week wired The magazine abandoned the digital revolution, being one of the original enthusiasts of the pro-social potential of digital technology. He introduced terms like ‘digital native’ and ‘viral media’ into the technology lexicon.
Not only are more important people coming forward to talk about the potential dangers of the AI industry, there has also been a shift in the tone of criticism. It’s getting tough. The point raised by Haidt and Schmidt in their article that AI technology can be misused by vested interests to create more misinformation and disharmony in society is certainly a serious issue. But new yorker The article raises even deeper questions. It asks whether AI technology is a tool that people with money will use to profit more from the effort of others. Will this lead to an increasing concentration of wealth among an even smaller number of people? Furthermore, can the AI industry improve the inequalities of our world and raise the standard of living of the common man?
Amidst these mounting criticisms of the AI industry, what surprises me most is the egregious silence of its apostles. No prominent person is coming forward to answer the various criticisms being leveled against the industry. This silence is not a good sign for it.
The news that AI tools could generate an image of Pope Francis wearing a white puffer jacket made headlines around the world. But does this fake photo making technology do anything to improve the lives of the common man? Instead, such AI tools would only reinforce what Derek Thomson said in his article: that many people today are using AI tools only as toys. Such AI technologies reinforce the growing belief that AI technology will be used mostly to create deep fakes and advance lies, and thus create disharmony around the world. So these types of AI tools could do more harm than good to the industry. Unfortunately, it is precisely these generative AI technologies that are making news headlines everywhere. That’s why the AI industry needs to project cases that have made a real difference in the lives of ordinary people.
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most infectious diseases in the world. TB killed 1.5 million people in 2020 alone. Prevention and early diagnosis of tuberculosis are the keys to its treatment. Chest X-ray is the most sensitive and cost-effective method for screening for tuberculosis and other lung diseases. However, there are not enough trained radiologists to interpret every chest X-ray in a timely manner, leading to delays in the diagnosis of TB. AI companies like Qure.ai have developed technology products that can read chest X-rays far more accurately than radiologists. This use case is not about AI making radiologists redundant. But it is about providing radiologist services to many places around the world where radiologists are not available.
Use cases for AI technology making a real difference to millions of people, even those at the bottom of the pyramid, can be found in India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) initiatives. Our DPI schemes are spread across sectors such as financial inclusion, healthcare, education, agriculture and many other public services. Interestingly, Indian DPI plans also implement sophisticated AI techniques, such as machine learning, conversational AI tools, and image analysis.
For a long time, one of biology’s greatest challenges was solving the protein-folding problem of understanding the molecular structure of a protein and its various functions in a healthy body — or the malfunctioning one of a diseased one. The extremely complex structure of a protein and the fact that it can change conformation in a milli- or even a microsecond has made it a very difficult problem to crack. But last year, an artificial-intelligence program called AlphaFold, developed by the AI company DeepMind, managed to predict the 3-D structures of almost every known protein — about 200 million. This breakthrough is now expected to help revolutionize the healthcare sector across the globe.
Generative AI technology that generates deep fakes and writes school essays for lazy students cannot be allowed to serve as an example of this industry. If the AI industry is to weather the current wave of criticism over the impact of AI tools, it must showcase cases that make a real difference to the lives of people at large. It’s a good thing for the AI industry that it has many such case studies. The industry just needs to talk more about them.
Biju Dominic is the Chief Evangelist for Fractal Analytics and the President of FinalMile Consulting.
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