Structure:

Introduction: (up to 30 words) Explain in brief the importance of AI and the future involving Ai

Body: (up to 100 words) Bring out the various applications, challenges, risks and ethical problems involving AI.

Conclusion: (up to 30 words) Write about the need for the Government to invest more into AI research and public-private sector collaboration required in the field.

Supporting Points:

In 2018-19 budget, the government mandated NITI Aayog to establish the National Program on AI with a view to guiding research and development in new and emerging technologies.

On 20th March, 2019, NITI Aayog circulated the cabinet note to establish a cloud computing platform called AIRAWAT (Artificial Intelligence Research, Analytics and Knowledge Assimilation Platform.

• The note circulated by NITI Aayog proposes that the government should pump in Rs. 7,500 crore rupees over 3 years as well as set up a high-level task force that will oversee the roll out and implementation of AI.
• The move to create cloud computing platform is part of the government’s goal of making India a pioneer amongst emerging economies with regards to AI and transform sectors like education, health, agriculture, urbanization and mobility.

Applications of AI

1. Healthcare Sector: Machine learning is being used for faster, cheaper and more accurate diagnosis and thus improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. For Example, IBM Watson and chatbots are some of such tools.
2. Business Sector: To take care of highly repetitive tasks Robotic process automation is applied which perform faster and effortlessly than humans. Further, Machine learning algorithms are being integrated into analytics and CRM platforms to provide better customer service. Chatbots being used into the websites to provide immediate service to customers
3. Education Sector: AI can make some of the educational processes automated such as grading, rewarding marks etc. therefore giving educators more time. Further, it can assess students and adapt to their needs, helping them work at their own pace. AI may change where and how students learn, perhaps even replacing some teachers.
4. Financial Sector: It can be applied to the personal finance applications and could collect personal data and provide financial advice. In fact, today software trades more than humans on the Wall Street.
5. Legal Sector: Automation can lead to faster resolution of already pending cases by reducing the time taken while analyzing cases thus better use of time and more efficient processes.
6. Manufacturing sector: Robots are being used for manufacturing since a long time now, however, more advanced exponential technologies have emerged such as additive manufacturing (3D Printing) which with the help of AI can revolutionize the entire manufacturing supply chain ecosystem.
7. Intelligent Robots: Robots can perform the tasks given by a human because of sensors to detect physical data from the real world such as light, heat, temperature, movement, sound, bump, and pressure. Moreover, they have efficient processors, multiple sensors and huge memory, to exhibit intelligence. Further, they are capable of learning from their errors and therefore can adapt to the new environment.
8. Gaming: AI has a crucial role in strategic games such as chess, poker, tic-tac-toe, etc., where the machine can think of a large number of possible positions based on heuristic knowledge.
9. Speech Recognition: There are intelligent systems that are capable of hearing and grasping the language in terms of sentences and their meanings while human talks to it. It can handle different accents, slang words, noise in the background, change in human’s noise due to cold, etc.
10. Error Reduction: Artificial intelligence helps us in reducing the error and the chance of reaching accuracy with a greater degree of precision is a possibility.
11. Cyber Security: In the 20th conference on e-governance in India it was discussed that AI can provide more teeth to cyber security and must be explored.
12. In Policing: India still has a conventional policing. AI based products open a new window of opportunity to do predictive policing in India.
13. In Agriculture: It has many uses, for example, it can help sense one how much water the crop needs.

Risks associated with AI

1. The decrease in demand for human labour due to machines and intelligent robots taking over the jobs in the manufacturing and the services sectors. For Example: In china some customs officers are now robots. In japan robots as housemaid is emerging trend.
2. Existential risks: Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded”.
3. AI technologies falling into terrorist hands may unleash modern terror network including machine and therefore vulnerability of humans may magnify.
4. It may lead to moral degradation in society due to decreased human to human interactions.

Philosphical Questions:

1. Can machines reach human level intelligence? Or are there hard boundaries to what a machine can accomplish?
2. Is it possible for machines to have a mind, consciousness, and mental states in exactly the same sense that human beings do? Can a machine be sentient, and thus deserve certain rights?
3. Are they dangerous to humanity? How can we ensure that machines behave ethically and that they are used ethically?