By: Joemar Matulac
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) is like sex in high school. Everyone is talking about it, few know what to do, and only your teacher is doing about it” – V. Zubarev
AI is one of the hottest topics in computing these days. It’s so popular that everyone wants to get into this discipline even though it is very old that started in 1956. Some of the reasons are pay rates, to be popular and be called data scientist or machine learning engineer. AI is not really like sex but it is the name of a whole knowledge field, similar to physics or chemistry. It has three main components; Data, Features, and Algorithm – this is the most obvious part.
You may not be aware but every time you use your mobile phone and the internet there are AIs at the back somewhere in the cloud residing in a data center that runs inside a server. It can be a Machine Learning (ML) algorithm that is gathering data and is not limited to the keystrokes in your keypad up to the websites you are visiting.
Companies that heavily use AI other than your military intelligence are the FAANG. Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google and yes even your local online shopping apps and websites are also using AI.
As long as the data were analyzed, AI can help industries and give solutions to problems we are facing today like in agriculture, climate change, poverty, education and many more. Businesses and communities can benefit from AI. It will help businesses offer services and goods based on the most viewed websites and products of their consumers. So as tech and business person, if you are not annoyed with the ads flooding in your email or social media, then it’s good for you but know the fact that it is how companies maximizing technology and using AI as a competitive advantage.
Risk is inevitable just like in any other field – physics and chemistry. One good example is the atomic bomb, a biochemical weapon. Maybe you’re thinking what is the relation of this in AI. Well, data is the new oil and once it’s processed it can be a superpower.
If you are asking how this discipline will shape our future, the answer is, it already did. Everyone must be aware that even though the machine cannot create something new, but it can forecast. It can’t be that really smart but it can memorize things better than us. It can’t go beyond their task, but they can reproduce.
Yes, it can’t kill humans, but it can choose the best target. Kinda scary? Maybe not.
Joemar Matulac is an experienced IT technical consultant and system developer with 10+ years of experience in managing technical teams and developing/designing/architecting web 2.0 and mobile-enterprise solutions in various platforms for a broad range of industries. He is currently working as Business Development Officer at Satellite GPS Asset Management and Tracking System, Inc. bridging the gap between business needs and technology.
