Oladosu Patricia Inumidun, a Nigerian AI expert who is passionate about using technology to improve the lives of others and the founder of IMD Institute, an institute that provides training and support to young people to develop digital skills, shared her views on the future of AI in Africa and the world in a recent interview.
Undoubtedly, one of the most transformative technologies of our time is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Especially with the advent of Chat-GPT, It is great to see how the AI revolution is enabling everyday people to understand its potency. From the way we work and study to the way we engage with the outside world, it has the potential to be completely redesigned by AI.
Yet immense power also entails great responsibility. Therefore, will AI save or destroy us? The answer is likely somewhere in between.
Some of the most important issues facing the world could be resolved with the help of AI. AI is being used to produce breakthrough medical therapies to save lives, such as precision in cancer diagnosis, blood disease diagnosis, and rapid drug discovery. Take, for instance, scientist La Fuente, who is dedicated to creating solutions for antibiotic resistance, asserted that what usually takes his team 3 to 6 years can now be achieved within days or even hours!
Furthermore, AI is being utilized to combat climate change, personalize learning, increase crop yields, build more effective transportation systems, aid businesses in growing, and apprehend criminals.
AI can greatly enhance our quality of life in many different ways. AI-powered chatbots, for instance, can offer round-the-clock customer support. Chatbots are projected to save businesses up to 2.5 billion hours of work, according to Juniper Research.
On the other hand, considering how the advent of technology has displaced some jobs in the past, the potential for widespread unemployment caused by AI is one of the main concerns. As AI advances, it will be able to automate a variety of functions that are currently done by people. Particularly in sectors like manufacturing and transportation, this could result in widespread job displacement.
In addition, there are concerns that deepfakes, voice clones, and face clones are on the rise, raising the possibility that AI might be misused for fraud and impersonation crimes in the wrong hands.
Another possibility is that AI may be used to create autonomous weapons that could cause harm without the need for human interaction, resulting in adverse consequences.
How do we ensure that AI is applied ethically and for the benefit of humanity? Numerous options are available to us.
Creating moral standards for the creation and application of AI is the first step. These rules ought to guarantee that AI is applied in a way that upholds human rights and moral principles. A sufficient number of Data ethics professionals and organizations dedicated to safeguarding good AI ethics are crucial.
Second, we must finance safety-related research in AI. The goal of this research should be to create strategies to prevent AI from endangering humans.
Third, we must educate people about AI. Nowadays, AI education is as critical as the ability to read and write (literacy). People will be better able to decide how to employ AI if they are more knowledgeable about it.
Regarding AI’s potential to assist youth, Patricia remains enthusiastic. “While AI may eliminate certain occupations, it will also generate additional jobs. AI expertise can equip young people with the skills they need to succeed in the workforce of the twenty-first century,” she said. “That’s why I founded IMD Institute, to help young people learn the digital skills they need to succeed and stay safe in the AI-powered economy.”
In the end, we dictate the tune. AI has the potential to either improve the world for everyone, or we can allow it to become a tool for destruction. “We get to decide,” she said.”
