Is Artificial Intelligence creating a fake world?
Even though we’ve already argued many times about how AI is amazing and how it helps us daily, AI raises some awareness and fears amongst humans. Many movie scenarios have imagined what robots will look like in the future for the best and the worst. Hopefully, those scenarios seem far from reality. Still, AI and machine learning already reached advanced levels we couldn’t imagine 10 years ago. As the world is becoming more and more “artificial”, one of the many apprehensions raised by AI is the creation of a fake world which slowly replaces the real one.
The rise of emotionally intelligent AI
If you thought a real employee was behind the chatbots of any website, sorry to disappoint you, but it’s just AI. This technology is used for the simplest tasks such as answering common questions and automatic response emails, which were usually done by humans. More advanced forms of AI such as Siri and Google Home totally replace any human interaction. Indeed, talking to devices feels real as they can answer with an almost-human voice to any of your questions or even sing you a birthday song. The reality behind these is just a bunch of experts who have prepared algorithms and a voice recognition system to reach this level of likeness. As algorithms are originally made by humans, they can easily add a hint of humanity to it, like verbal ticks to make a conversation imperfect, and thus more realistic. Google recently showed to the world the new potential of its technology: Google Assistant. In a stunning demonstration, the device called a hairdresser to book an appointment. The voice of the virtual assistant was so real that its interlocutor couldn’t recognize the robot’s trick. This performance has raised awareness around the world as AI is so advanced it is more and more difficult to distinguish humans from machines.
The risks of fake
For some industries where creativity, brains and inspiration are necessary to create good content, AI does not receive the best welcome. For example, in the film industry, AI and algorithms are set to find the best scenario which is going to make billions of entries. On social media, fake subscribers and comments are easy to buy in order to gain popularity. In that way, AI is a threat to fair talented people.
At a higher level, AI can have a disastrous effect. As AI can replicate voices, fake photos and videos, any ill-intentioned person can use it for detrimental use, such as spreading misinformation or distorted reality on the Internet. Even though emotions and feelings are purely organic so a robot could never have this asset, an algorithm can be adapted to look like humans in their behavior. Thus, it can be dangerous for weak people who could decipher the difference between real and fake interactions.
In order to protect the users and customers, brands and industries must be transparent and inform them whenever they are dealing with an Artificial Intelligence or any robotic platform to ensure that a level of trust is kept between you and your customer.
