Human Factor Still Crucial in an Artificial Intelligence World

With the current pace of technological advancements taking place in the AI space, AI has become more complex and sophisticated with its ability to perform a variety of tasks performed by humans hitherto. Roles that have traditionally required a high level of human intelligence are now being performed by AI tools. Executives who once relied solely on their intuition and experience to arrive at decisions are now leveraging the data at their possession to arrive at more informed decisions Despite all its all proven efficiency, artificial intelligence can never completely replace the human element as PwC’s Data & Analytics Survey 2016 reveals how most executives will still rely on human intuition to drive their decisions. Executives will, however, supplement their human judgment with data driven insights to arrive at decisions. There are certain areas, however, where AI cannot play any significant role and where it is the human brain only that is the deciding factor. Common sense Despite advances in natural language processing using deep learning techniques, machines are unable to substitute the human brain as far as taking decisions based on common sense. Scientists working on common sense reasoning believe that lot more needs to be done in the technology space before any machine can replicate the level of common sense exhibited by an individual. A chat with Alexa or Siri will reveal the inherent weakness of AI in arriving at decisions using common sense. Intuition & arriving at conclusions The human brain is good at exercising intuition and arriving at conclusions after going through all available facts. Though certain academic efforts are underway to bring intuition capabilities to machines, it is still in its infancy and machines presently are nowhere near achieving that intuition capability. Creativity Creativity is an area where intelligent machines are unable to match the capabilities exhibited by humans. Though some intelligent machines have produced some great works of art, the fact remains that these are based on learning the creativity patterns of those authors. True creativity would mean the ability to generate novel solutions to problems not seen previously or the creation of innovate works of art. Empathy The ability to empathize with others and to understand their feelings, emotions, values etc are matters that only humans are capable of. Doing multiple jobs Artificial intelligence tools are programmed to perform some specific tasks only and do not perform multiple tasks. Robots can either pick up a box from the ground or drive a car. They cannot, however, pick up a box, drop it in the car and start to drive – they can only do any one of these tasks but not all. Humans on the other hand, are capable of performing multiple tasks and can in this case pick up a box, put it in a car and drive the car. AI failing to discern fake news There are instances when Google has delivered fake and incorrect answers to queries and has struggled to discern facts from fiction. As there is no human element involved in Google algorithm, fake news does appear occasionally. Addition of human element in this exercise will prove more useful as checking for veracity requires critical thinking which only humans are presently capable of. It should be realized that these AI platforms are only as accurate as the information on which it is trained. Instead of the considering AI as a replacement for human intelligence, enterprises should devise strategies that would enable human ingenuity to work in unison with AI. Leveraging the capabilities of AI with human ingenuity would better serve human interests.

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