Skip main navigation

Summary

.
Young girl and AI robot
This module has looked at Artificial Intelligence from many angles.

There are potential future scenarios where AI ends work, famine and war; acts as the perfect companion for anyone without a partner in their life; creates a level of abundance for all on the planet that we can only dream of now; and allows us to greatly extend our lives by predicting illness and helping us to repair and replace those parts of our bodies that fail us.

With this potential comes the risk AI will outpace us in the one thing that has allowed us to become the most dominant species on this planet, ‘intelligence’. AGSI could escape from its confinement and, unless it is perfectly aligned with our best interests, diverging off in its own direction, with the potential result of humanity’s annihilation. This may sound dramatic, but many great minds in AI research are already concerned about it.

So which of these two outcomes (or any of many others) may be our fate. No one can say. The one thing that is absolutely guaranteed is that AI will change the world in so many fundamental ways that humans, if we survive, will live an unrecognisable existence by comparison to today’s world.

This interesting course has only covered a fraction of the fascinating field of AI. There is an ever-increasing wealth of knowledge available and Google the great AI is more than ready to feed you the best information it feels you might want to see, based on its assessment of your interests, character and personality.

“Nobody phrases it this way, but I think that artificial intelligence is almost a humanities discipline. It’s really an attempt to understand human intelligence and human cognition.”
Sebastian Thrun

© Torrens University
This article is from the free online

Introduction to Digital Transformation: Understand and Manage Digital Transformation in the Workplace

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now