The year is 2038 and it is an age where the humanoid robots bagged by artificial intelligence have become a serious need for the human survival. But Mr. Harry M. Doseza hates robots. He had lost his wife in a situation no one will ever imagine could result fatal! Doseza’s wife was surprising her husband by putting him in a blanket from the back, perhaps in a naughty-light mood, and lost her life to Rock, Doseza’s personal security robot, who had been programmed to protect his master! Indeed Rock had given a hats-off proof of his brainless artificial intelligentsia!
Is that the future of AI? Will the machine become so powerful that it begins to think to a point where it is more capable than the humans? Notice, the word quoted here is “capable”, not “powerful”. No doubt computers are more powerful at giving us answers faster than human brainpower, but are they more capable? That’s what people are worrying about.
It has been forecast that robots will penetrate society in 21st century not only in secondary industry but also in the service industry, that is, the tertiary industry field. In that case, robots will be required to have anthropomorphic appearance sand faculties. In another words, since the robots that play active roles in the secondary industry are assessed as substitutions of human labor power, the robots being developed for the future should have an ability to deal with information as well as a person does. And this seems not at all far away. Danger is dam nearer that what we think.
A START LEADING TO AN END!
The world dazzled in success, invention and accomplishment. It was in the year 1972, when scientists were marking a pinnacle period of their age as they had unveiled WABOT-1 (WAseda roBOT), the world’s first full-scale humanoid intelligent robot, resembling a human. It was the first android, able to walk, communicate with a person in Japanese (with an artificial mouth), measure distances and directions to the objects using external receptors (artificial ears and eyes), and grip and transport objects with hands. Eventually, in 1985, WASUBOT took birth! Surprisingly, he was a musician robot from Waseda University who also performed a concerto with the NHK Symphony Orchestra at the opening ceremony of the International Science and Technology Exposition, that too LIVE!
FROM THERE TO HERE!
Sophia, a delicate looking woman-Robot with doe-brown eyes and long fluttery eyelashes came into existence in April 2015, developed by a Hong Kong-based company, Hanson Robotics. She made international headlines on October 25, 2017 when she’d become the first robot in the world to achieve a citizenship of any country. During the Future Investment Initiative Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, standing behind a podium as she spoke, to all effects, she presented a humanoid form — excepting the shimmery metal cap of her head, where hair would be on a human head. When asked if she was happy to be here, she said, “I’m always happy when surrounded by smart people who also happen to be rich and powerful.” With this she demonstrates that she has an incredible sense of humour! Not only this, but Sophia can express feelings and wants to protect humanity.
The Sophia-bot was dreamed up by the brains at Hanson Robotics, lead by AI developer Dr. David Franklin Hanson Jr, an American roboticist. He extrapolates on how humanoid robots can be likable, despite the conception that anything to ‘fake human’ will trigger revulsion in people. Anyways, so far there’s only one Sophia in existence, so the likelihood of her suddenly being in your school or workplace is still a not feasible. And even when we do have more in existence, we still need to muddle out the whole concept of robotic rights, citizenship and how this plays together. For now, while Sophia is undoubtedly a ‘smart’ robot and a very cool talking piece, she’s definitely operating on a script and thus lacks any ‘real’ cognizance, as defined by free thinkers.
IS THIS HEIGHT WORRYSOME!
Robots are putting medicals on revolution! They collect, store, re-format, and trace data to provide faster, more consistent access. Analyzing tests, X-Rays, CT scans, data entry, and other mundane tasks can all be done faster and more accurately now by robots. Also, Cardiology and radiology are two disciplines where the amount of data to analyze can be overwhelming and time consuming. Cardiologists and radiologists in the future should only look at the most complicated cases where human supervision is useful! Rest is assured by our helper cum master, “ROBOTS”.
Imagine a robot performing a brain operation with all those deadly and lethal instruments in his hands. With no aprons, no mouth covers and no bunch of doctors around him assisting him in the operation! Scientists believe, soon this will remain no imagination!
Anyways, let’s talk a little realistic; now there is something that takes the medical intelligentsia truly to an entirely new level. Nurses were once considered as second mothers. But, who would have ever imagined having a human look-alike machine nurturing you in hospitals in your odds?
WORKING IMAGINATION IN REAL
Molly, a digital nurse now helps doctors in US for monitoring patient’s condition and follow up with treatments, between doctor visits. The program uses machine learning to support patients specializing in chronic illnesses. This much celebrated “virtual nurse” is creating a question mark, as believed by many thinkers, that whether it’s rejoicing or worrisome?
GODMEN NOT NEEDED ANYMORE!
From short-listing few top specialists for your disease registered in the app, to arranging appointments and taking prescriptions to even suggesting medicines, Apps like Babylon in the UK are also using AI and are doing it all! Users report their symptoms into the app, which uses speech recognition to compare against a database of illnesses. Babylon then offers a recommended action, taking into account the user’s medical history.
Adding to the list, in 2016, Boston Children’s Hospital developed an app that gives basic health information and advice for parents of ill children. The app answers asked questions about medications and whether symptoms require a doctor visit.
CARS DRIVEN NOT BY DRIVERS!
Forget a BMW-Jaguar exotic drive; think about a robot driving you in the town! Some of the leading tech and automotive giants like Google and Tesla are spending millions of dollars in research to come up with better technology and to make autonomous cars a commercial reality. Toyota has gone a step further and has brought together Big data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to create highly responsive autonomous systems that aid in mobility for those who are “less able to drive”.
Eventually, all the factors leading to artificial intelligence shaped up and thus turning driverless cars into a reality.
Infact, in 2015, the install rate of AI based systems in new vehicles was just 8%; this number is expected to soar to 109% in 2025. This is only because different kinds of AI systems are going to be installed in vehicles.
AFTER “SHEEP” AND “MONKEY”, ARE HUMANS NEXT?
Techniques are now being used to produce livestock and even replicate lost pets, but its implications still concern people.
Dolly, a sheep, had lived a life in the spotlight. She was revealed to the world in 1996 as the first mammal ever to be cloned from another individual’s body cell. Fifteen years have passed since Dolly was euthanized after developing a lung disease and severe arthritis.
But, upon the initial announcement of Dolly’s birth, the press went into overdrive describing the “furious debate” in the scientific community the discovery had ignited. Many suggested it meant human cloning was inevitable and others marked it to be “unbelievable”.
“It basically means that there are no limits. It means all of science fiction is true. They said it could never be done and now here it is, done before the year 2000”-Dr Lee Silver, a Princeton University biologist
In recent years, champion horses have also been cloned but it was when the cloned monkeys Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua were revealed to the world in December 2017, the furore around cloning was rekindled. The monkeys were produced using the same technique used to produce Dolly all those years ago: somatic cell nuclear transfer.
Many believe this advancement to pose serious threats for mankind and that now humans are to be cloned next! But, if scientists are to be believed, you are no way going to get your deceased love ones back! Monkeys are undoubtedly genetically closer to humans than sheep are, but with these cloned monkey primates, scientists were once again keen to emphasise the development did not mean human clones were next.
“You’re not going to recreate a lost loved one, and that’s why I have been so critical of the dog cloning – because they are essentially fooling pet owners into thinking they can recreate the lost pet”–Professor Lovell-Badge, a British scientist
“Just like nuclear power and artificial intelligence, cloning technology is also a double-edged sword”–Dr Qiang Sun, one of the scientists responsible for the cloned monkeys
THREATS FORCASTED
Prof. Stephen Hawking, Britain’s pre-eminent scientist, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence. Prof. Hawking says the primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed so far have already proved very useful, but he fears the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans!
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded”–Stephen Hawkings
MACHINE SUPERCEEDING OUR OWN INTELLIGENCE!
We are a long way from having the computing power or developing the algorithms needed to achieve full artificial intelligence, but it is believed it will come in the next few decades.
Likewise, Prof. Hawking is not alone in fearing for the future. Elon Musk, chief executive of rocket-maker Space X, also fears artificial intelligence.
“AI is our biggest existential threat”– Elon Musk
Thus, in the short term, there are concerns that clever machines capable of undertaking tasks done by humans until now will swiftly destroy millions of jobs and moreover will pose a more serious threat to the very existence of humanity. This is, certainly, because we cannot quite know what will happen if a machine exceeds our own intelligence! INFACT,
WE NEVER KNOW IF WE’LL BE INFINITELY HELPED BY IT, OR IGNORED BY IT AND SIDELINED, OR CONCEIVABLY DESTROYED BY IT!
EXCLUSIVE ON NATIONAL TECHNOLOGY DAY
11th May is celebrated as National Technology day since 1998, when India carried first successful nuclear tests at Pokhran and indigenous aircraft “Hansa-3” test flown at Bangalore. And with this India became the world’s sixth nuclear state on this day, making it the sixth country to join the ‘nuclear club’ of nations and the first one that was not party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Since then growth in Science and Technology has taken an exponential curve. India has transformed its computing power from its first computer, HEC-2M, in early 1956 to now leveraging cloud, hybrid infrastructure, and artificial intelligence, human cloning and also machine robotics.