Artificial Intelligence Models

These days, tech is everywhere. Society has steadily moved towards increased automation and digitization, which has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Work-from-home orders and storefront closures have solidified modern society as a digital era.

Increased automation and digitization have been made possible thanks to artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is all about making computers and machines make decisions like humans. By programming computers to mimic human thinking patterns, they are able to perform aspects of our jobs — although a scary thought (cue the sci-fi movies of robots taking over the world), AI can make processes much more effective and often more accurate.

There are different models of artificial intelligence.

• Artificial intelligence models are the tools and algorithms used to train computers to process and analyze data – just as humans do.
• Machine learning is a broad category that falls under the artificial intelligence model label, in which computers are taught to think by themselves and develop their own algorithms after processing vast amounts of data.
• Other artificial intelligence models need an algorithm to be programmed into the computer and will learn to adjust the algorithm based on experience.
• Lastly, there are also models that do not have the ability to learn on their own at all – they only function according to the preprogrammed algorithm and need human input.¹

For example, Google Maps and other navigation applications use artificial intelligence models to guide us to our destinations. The machine remembers the edges of buildings that it learned by using data from other travellers and through inputted data via an algorithm. As people use the application on a day-to-day basis, the model incorporates the data gathered from these travels and can give more accurate route information by recognizing changes in traffic flow.²

However, a big question remains: do artificial intelligence models enhance humanity and society, or do they run the risk of making humans redundant? Here are two different opinions:

“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race… It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”

– Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist, who discovered that black holes emit radiation and was the first to discover a theory of relativity and of quantum mechanics.³

“Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is that this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we’ll augment our intelligence.”

– Ginni Rometty, American business executive who was the first woman to serve as the president and CEO of IBM.³