There is Little Oversight

If you’re a fan of using electronic devices, you’re probably familiar with the ubiquitous blocks of text printed on their various parts. That text will usually say something about being compliant with a federal agency or adhering to the standards laid out by some kind of governing body. That’s because those governing bodies exist - many things involving electronics, the internet, and more are regulated either by commissions or professional groups. Artificial intelligence, however, is not. Even as wealthy tech visionaries call for regulation, there is still no set standard for the development or operating procedure for artificial intelligence.

It’s Already Widely Been Widely Adopted by Businesses

Whether it’s a digital marketing company or a popular sports team, artificial intelligence is already in a lot of places you might not have expected. Artificial intelligence tells popular streaming services like Pandora, Spotify or Netflix what you might want to watch or listen to next, and it drives shopping recommendations on websites like Amazon, trying to guide you to the product you are most likely to purchase and enjoy. It’s even deployed on Google’s search engine, where two identical searches might produce different results on different computers, based on your search and browsing history.

True Artificial Intelligence is Still a Long Way Away

When people say “artificial intelligence,” usually what they mean is a kind of sophisticated algorithm that puts your data in and compares it to other people’s data to try and find a match for the next thing you might want (in overly general terms). This kind of artificial intelligence is in no way actually intelligent. Google Home or Amazon Alexa, for instance, are two cutting-edge devices that use artificial intelligence to its fullest to provide a convenient way for consumers to interact with their respective services. But when users found a way to get two Google devices to interact with each other, the result was absolute gibberish. True artificial intelligence is still impossible given what we have today.

Fake News Will Get Worse

If you thought fake news was bad already, brace yourself for a future in which videos and images can be expertly altered by specialized algorithms to look and sound as real as possible. There are already some very convincing examples out on the internet, and they are commonly referred to as “deepfakes.” Videos deceptively edited to give a false impression of reality have already played major roles in political events in several countries in recent years.

It Will Probably Make Your Life Better

While the scaremongering over the potential for artificial intelligence to replace workers in their jobs has some merit, the other side of the coin is that many people are in a position to benefit greatly from increased prevalence of artificial intelligence in our lives. Anyone living with a disability, for instance, faces many challenges related to mobility and interaction with objects and facilities usually designed for the able-bodied. Driverless cars, to name only a single item, would make a world of difference for people with disabilities.