Just how much will Artificial Intelligence (AI) change urban life as we know it?

1 Nov

It doesn’t seem all that long ago since mobile phones made their debut on the South African market, yet many years have passed (22 of them to be precise) and so many new tech advancements have since made their way into our lives!

It’s almost unnerving to think that by 2030, fully fledged Artificial Intelligence will have made major changes to urban life. In fact, that’s what Barbara Grosz, Harvard Professor and AI100 Standing Committee Chairperson has dedicated her time to analysing, and the results thus far are rather interesting.

AI has already done it’s bit to improve our quality of life

The conveniences of robotic vacuum cleaners, autonomous cars and smart home systems are already considered invaluable to many of us. This is just the start of what’s to come.

Over the next 15 years or so, we can expect Artificial Intelligence to make progress in leaps and bounds in absolutely every sphere, as we begin to see AI playing a role in our education systems, health care systems, security features and even the entertainment industry.

The question isn’t about whether or not AI is going to become more of a feature in our lives; it’s more about whether or not we have our legal and ethical boundary ducks in a row and if society is ready for all that AI has to offer.

The panel of experts that professor Barbara Grosz is part of has been established to take a closer look at AI and how it will progress over the next 15 years. To make sure that information and expectations are always accurate, Stanford University has launched a 100-year study on AI which has been dubbed the AI100 project. Every 100 years, the team will release reports on the progress of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on the urban world.

Evaluating the potential impact of AI

Peter Stone who is a computer scientist at the University of Texas and also a chair of the AI100 report, showed great faith in the development of AI in the coming years in a statement he recently made; “We believe specialised AI applications will become both increasingly common and more useful by 2030, improving our economy and quality of life. But this technology will also create profound challenges affecting jobs and incomes and other issues that we should begin addressing now to ensure the benefits of AI are broadly shared”. It seems that we have our work cut out for us if we want to truly benefit from the development of Artificial Intelligence in our urban lives!

Currently, AI affects various areas of our urban lifestyles and it’s these areas that will be under scrutiny in the coming years and months. They are as follows:

  • Transportation
  • Home / service robots
  • Health care systems
  • Education systems
  • Entertainment
  • Low-resource communities
  • Safety and security
  • Employment
  • Workplace systems

While there are many questions regarding safety, reliability, responsibility and of course how AI will affect jobs in the future, the report is not designed to specifically answer these. It is hoped that with close analysis, the solutions to these potential problems will be found.

How do you think Artificial Intelligence will affect your future? Are you for it or against it? We’d love to know. For more information and advice on AI or to learn more about our secure data backup packages, contact us at Soteria Cloud today.

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