The world is passing through an uncertain phase. The crumbling global order, war depredations, and the accelerating threat of climate change only exacerbate the acrimony of increasing tribalism across societies. Nearer home, the era of coalition politics is back, and its effect is uncertain. Will it reduce the bickering across political, regional and class lines, or will it only amplify it? Will it help solve inequality and employment issues, or will it only dampen overall economic growth without helping anyone?
Amidst the uncertainty of the present, it’s comforting to envision a future that holds promise. Not a distant future, but one that is within our grasp, the near future.
The sociopolitical and economic arenas are too fraught to think about a near future that will benefit the world. What about technology? Enough is happening there to change lives globally. However, the overall sour mood also permeates the view on technology forecasting.
Take Artificial Intelligence (AI). Future historians will see 2023 as the year the Age of AI dawned. However, current prognostications on what AI will do for humanity are primarily dominated by doubt and dread.
After a day spent reflecting on the Indian election results and uneasy contemplation of India’s social and economic future, I have decided, as an exercise in therapy, to generate a listicle in today’s column on the transformative potential of AI. These are not just ‘goodies’ but solutions that can revolutionse our lives in the next decade. AI systems and devices that are personal and make an individual’s life better.
Here it is:
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- An AI audio avatar. A personal wear device that not only translates speech from one language to another but also puts it out in real-time as a lip-synced dub, mimicking the speaker’s voice. The potential of such a device is immense, and the result could be greater cohesion within and across societies, especially in multi-lingual polities like India and Europe. There could also be negative aspects – for example, a rabble-rouser will rabble in real-time in multiple languages. But then, no technology or means has ever been invented that does not have a negative aspect. All the technologies that the above kind of device will need already exist and are ready to be adapted and integrated. This doability aspect applies to all other items on this list, too.
- An AI Chef. Cooking is a science. An AI Chef operating in a fully equipped AI kitchen with all ingredients on hand and robotic arms could rustle up any dish on demand. It could do so from a recipe, of course, but it could even analyze and recreate a cooked dish. It could act on human feedback and tailor a dish to specific requirements. Give it a dietary requirement, and it creates a week-long menu that fits it and serves the meal every day. While an AI Chef is a possibility within the next decade, within the next few decades, it could reach Start Trek levels – rustling up dishes from manipulating a few basic chemicals that taste the same as those made from natural ingredients and also have the same if not better nutritional values. Imagine agriculture and animal husbandry being replaced by the chemical industry!
- An AI Concierge. An AI system that resides on all your devices and is witness to all that you do (based on the level of access you give it) and, if you choose so, all that you think (by inputting your thoughts into the system, a cyborg-like interface that knows what you think is probably a century away). Your AI Concierge, if you so choose, handles all your routine correspondence (personal and business), shopping and even financial transactions. Your AI concierge will do all it does based on a deep understanding of your needs, an all-around knowledge, and a speed of action unmatched by an individual or even a human team of specialists.
- An AI Personal Physician. Today, VVIPs, like heads of state, have personal physicians. Tomorrow, the miracle of AI will lead to many of us having one – a constantly up-to-date AI expert system that will access all of the individual’s health data – from all the wearables, lab tests and medical scans (the amount and quality of health data that wearables will collect are constantly improving. A wearable lab-on-the-arm that continually tests and provides periodic detailed blood work reports is possible. Home scanners that can provide essential X-ray scans are likely to become familiar. Over the next few decades, an AI bathroom could scan a user’s body and waste output daily). The AI Personal Physician would then make health recommendations to the individual and consult specialists, who could also be AI systems when needed. It would coordinate with the AI Concierge to fix appointments for tests and consultations.
Today, AI is a hollow add-on claim touted by many consumer device and service sellers. However, AI will produce a range of genuinely pathbreaking consumer devices and services tomorrow, creating a new consumer and economic boom. Initially, the boom might cater to the affluents, but economies-of-scale and increasing economic productivity will ensure the boom spreads across all sections of society.