AI technology will soon replace error-prone humans all over the world but here’s why it could set us all free – The Independent

It has been oft-quoted albeit humouredly that the ideal of medicine is the elimination of the physician. The emergence and encroachment of artificial intelligence (AI) on the field of medicine, however, puts an inconvenient truth on the aforementioned witticism. Over the span of their professional lives, a pathologist may review 100,000 specimens, a radiologist more so; AI can perform this undertaking in days rather than decades.

Visualise your last trip to an NHS hospital, the experience was either one of romanticism or repudiation: the hustle and bustle in the corridors, or the agonising waiting time in A&E; the empathic human touch, or the dissatisfaction of a rushed consultation; a seamless referral or delays and cancellations.

Contrary to this, our experience of hospitals in the future will be slick and uniform; the human touch all but erased and cleansed, in favour of complete and utter digitalisation. Envisage an almost automated hospital: cleaning droids, self-portered beds, medical robotics. Fiction of today is the fact of tomorrow, doesnt quite apply in this situation, since all of the above-mentioned AI currently exists in some form or the other.

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But then, what comes of the antiquated, human doctor in our future world? Well, they can take consolation, their unemployment status would be part of a global trend: the creation displacing the creator. Mechanisation of the workforce leading to mass unemployment. This analogy of our friend, the doctor, speaks volumes; medicine is cherished for championing human empathy if doctors arent safe, nobody is. The solution: socialism.

Open revolt against machinery seems a novel concept set in some futuristic dystopian land, though, the reality can be found in history: The Luddites of Nottinghamshire. A radical faction of skilled textile workers protecting their employment through machine destruction and riots, during the industrial revolution of the 18th century. The now satirised term "Luddite", may be more appropriately directed to your fathers fumbled attempt at unlocking his iPhone, as opposed to a militia.

What lessons are to be learnt from the Luddites? Much. Firstly, the much-fictionalised fight for dominance between man and machine is just that: fictionalised. The real fight is within mankind. The Luddites fight was always against the manufacturer, not the machine; machine destruction simply acted as the receptacle of dissidence. Secondly, government feeling towards the Luddites is exemplified through 12,000 British soldiers being deployed against the Luddites, far exceeding the personnel deployed against Napoleons forces in the Iberian Peninsula in the same year.

Though providing clues, the future struggle against AI and its wielders will be tangibly different from that of the Luddite struggle of the 18th century, next; its personal, its about soul. Our higher cognitive faculties will be replaced: the diagnostic expertise of the doctor, decision-making ability of the manager, and (if were lucky) political matters too.

Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company

Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads

The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare

Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished

Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011

Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions

Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately

Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company

Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads

The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare

Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished

Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011

Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions

Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately

The monopolising of AI will lead to mass unemployment and mass welfare, reverberating globally. AI efficiency and efficacy will soon replace the error-prone human. It must be the case that AI is to be socialised and the means of production, the AI, redistributed: in other words, brought under public ownership. Perhaps, the emergence of co-operative groups made up of experienced individuals will arise to undertake managerial functions in their previous, now automated, workplace. Whatever the structure, such an undertaking will require the full intervention of the state; on a moral basis not realised in the Luddite struggle.

Envisaging an economic system of nationalised labour of AI machinery performing laborious as well as lively tasks shant be feared. This economic model, one of "abundance", provides a platform of the fullest of creative expression and artistic flair for mankind. Humans can pursue leisurely passions. Imagine the doctor dedicating superfluous amounts of time on the golfing course, the manager pursuing artistic talents. And what of the politician? Well, thats anyones guess

An abundance economy is one of sustenance rather than subsistence; initiating an old form of socialism fit for a futuristic age. AI will transform the labour market by destroying it; along with the feudalistic structure inherent to it.

Thought-provoking questions do arise: what is to become of human aspiration? What exactly will it mean to be human in this world of AI?

Ironically; perhaps it will be the machine revolution that gives us the resolution to age-old problems in society.

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AI technology will soon replace error-prone humans all over the world but here's why it could set us all free - The Independent