KUWAIT CITY, March 14 : Recent leaps in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have sparked serious discourse on whether or not this technology will soon replace human beings in various tasks and jobs. For those touting human ingenuity and creativity, the old folktale of John Henry and the Railroad might inspire. The story has it that Henry -- an African American folk hero and railroad worker -- competed against a steam-powered drill, trying to prove that man was much faster and stronger than a machine. The legend concludes with him winning by sheer force and determination. Many might argue the authenticity of the story, but one cannot deny that humans have the imagination and consciousness that no current technology could sincerely duplicate or imitate.

However, does the relationship between AI and humanity have to be one of competitiveness and rivalry, or might it be a synergistic relationship in line with other technological advancements in history, with infinite possibilities looming on the horizon “Applications of AI technology have several ramifications in politics and business, but the idea of “creating content dynamically without involving human beings is a very traumatic change in the way we work,” Bahrain’s Ameen Altajer, CEO of the AI Company (INFINITEWARE), told KUNA in a series of interviews with experts and individuals tackling the topic at hand. Altajer, whose company has been providing products and services to clients across the globe for more than 15 years, said that AI applications would affect several sectors including media and news. In corporate spaces, like banks, AI technology is being put to use to perform language-based tasks including drafting emails, this “takes a lot of the workload from human beings, so it has a lot of pros and cons,” he said.

Asked if AI would be able to venture off without the involvement of humans, Altajer said that there was a level of “symbiosis” between the technology and humans; however, AI was not at that stage where it could develop a sense of agency on its own without humans being in the picture. AI could make decisions, affirmed the expert, adding that the concept of machine learning involves specifying inputs and outputs via algorithms and data to imitate decision-making by humans without the machine knowing the practical details of the process.

If prompted, AI -- through the machine learning process -- could distinguish between images of cats and dogs without really knowing the intricate details and differences of both species unless fed with more information, he explained. “There is no agency … no consciousness as far as we can understand and see,” stated Altajer, but pointed out that AI, as a technology, would for sure change down the road. On current uses of AI and Language Learning Models (LLM), he said that both technologies involve feeding a tremendous amount of data and text to provide convincing output that mimics humans. Altajer did express fear when it came to involving AI and other similar technologies in making powerful decisions, asking “If we do not understand how those systems work from the inside, are we okay with the idea of delegating the ‘driving wheel’ to them” In the case of information being implicitly biased, AI would be making decisions according to data regardless of circumstances, firing or hiring individuals, favoring certain races, hair colors, and whatnot if the data dictated so, he said.

Bringing the economy into the sphere of discussions, Mohammad Ramadan -- an economic researcher and columnist for the Kuwaiti Al-Qabas newspaper -- said that recent advancements in AI had increased its usage across the board. “We see the usage in financial markets, trading, fraud detection, image recognition, military use, and self-driving cars,” stated Ramadan about the vast utilization of AI. On fears of AI taking over careers, Ramadan pointed out that “Some people should be worried that AI will take their jobs, especially jobs that could be automated.”

According to a July 29, 2023 report by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) -- a 1990-established organization aiding in economic and business decision-making, “by 2030, activities that account for up to 30 percent of hours currently worked across the US economy could be automated -- a trend accelerated by generative AI”. Ramadan explained that the report’s findings were no cause of plausible concern, indicating, “When the PC was invented” it had replaced the typing machines, other devices, or jobs that have been there and this is called structural unemployment where people lose their jobs due to market structure change.”

On the solution to such possible unemployment, the expert said that people could adapt easily by gathering different sets of skills and knowledge creating new jobs and career paths. Ramadan also spoke about the government’s responsibilities towards the issue of AI, saying, “Government should not do anything expect regulating AI to be more, legally useable, Video generated by AI could be almost realistic, Voice could be realistic, Chatbots could act like humans, so we do not know how that thing could develop.” He indicated that various polls across the globe showed that a huge percentage of people feared that AI could be used fraudulently. Ramadan asserted that AI and humans could coexist in the economic landscape; however, between 2023 and 2030 AI market size is projected to expand at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 37.3 percent, according to a report by the India-US-based market research and consulting company “Grand View Research”, cited by several outlets, including Forbes. (KUNA)