Artificial intelligence (AI) is inevitably playing a significant role in our daily lives, such as biometric technology, which makes identity verification easier and more accurate. For example, to unlock your smartphone, originally you needed to enter a code or pattern to unlock it, but currently it has been changed to face scan or fingerprint scan. Some restaurants applied robots for serving food instead of staff. However, these are just the starting point of using AI.
2 categories of AI based on its intelligence: Strong AI and Weak AI
Nowadays, many AI tools are being created in the world to make our lives more convenient, but none of them are classified as Strong AI.
Strong AI or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) refers to “A type of AI that possesses human-like intelligence and can perform any intellectual task that a human can, such as thinking like humans and problem-solving without instructions.”
Weak AI or Narrow AI refers to “A type of AI designed to perform a specific task or set of tasks in a limited domain. It is developed by machine learning models and specific data provided by humans. Therefore, Weak AI cannot independently think, analyze, and solve problems.”
Although AI research and development are continuously evolving, the most advanced AI today is still very far from the concept of Strong AI. However, it is not completely hopeless because Sophia, the world’s first AI humanoid robot, has already become a citizen of Saudi Arabia and has attended TV shows and conferences around the world as the first robot innovation ambassador of the United Nations Development Programme. Furthermore, Sophia is a model for AI research, particularly for understanding human-robot interaction. While Sophia is not a Strong AI yet, it is categorized as a Weak AI, stepping closer to humanity.
The future of Strong AI
Strong AI is still in the development stage and has not yet been implemented in real life. Many people think that Strong AI is just a fantasy because, no matter how smart artificial intelligence is, it cannot be as smart as humans. Additionally, there are so many controversies and concerns among people regarding the advantages and disadvantages that may arise after Strong AI is successfully developed.
Of course, when Strong AI is ready to implement, it may potentially impact human work because AI can help people in doing more tasks such as software development. Many software developers learn to use AI in programming or solving problems, so they can work faster. Anyway, the AI we currently use, like ChatGPT, is still considered Weak AI.
While the capabilities of Weak AI are enormously beneficial to humans as mentioned above, if Strong AI were developed, our world would be completely transformed. However, some people think that the developed AI might become more intelligent than humans and eventually steal human jobs.
Conclusion
In my opinion, Strong AI is the next level of technology that will enhance our world. If we look back to the industrial revolution era, carriage horse drivers were worried that the cars would replace them. Finally, cars replaced horse-drawn vehicles, and then many other careers emerged, such as car mechanics, drivers, etc.
The development of AI is not different from the past vehicle transformation. Once it has been successfully developed, our world will change greatly. Moreover, when AI developers can create AI that is as smart as humans, they must have plans to handle and ensure human safety. This is because we cannot predict whether the Strong AI would be beneficial or harmful to humans after it is successfully developed.
Source:
The History of Artificial Intelligence – Science in the News (harvard.edu)
Logic Theorist – Complete History of the Logic Theorist Program (history-computer.com)