A Point of View by Paul Montesino

Artificial Intelligence- The new line on the sand?
A Point of View © 1996
By Paul V. Montesino, PhD, MBA, CSP.

We have been there before. People faced with the advent of technologies feel their livelihoods and egos threatened. The list is long.

The invention of the printing press (1) by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany, around the year 1440, made the Bible available to the masses. Preachers who depended on their skilled speeches for their sermons and scribes of documents depending on their handwriting abilities felt threatened. The sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class. The history of the world would break into two big periods, before and after the Reformation.

The Invention of the internal combustion engine (1). Invented around 1860 by Elienne Renoir, a Belgian-French engineer. The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of fuel with air creates hot gasses that do work, such as moving a piston while they expand. They are the type of engine used for transportation, such as in automobiles, where the piston turns a crankshaft attached to the car’s wheels. Even jet engines and rocket engines are a type of internal combustion engine called continuous combustion system engines.

Drivers of horse carriages and the raisers and feeders of the horses who pulled the carts were not too happy. Neither were those who hated the noise of the automobile engines on our streets. But, of course, transportation wouldn’t be what it is today without the internal combustion engine.

The invention of the airplane (1). Wilbur and Orville Wright, two brothers who lived in Ohio, after years filled with trials, successes, and failures, made great strides in producing a glider that could stay in the air longer than any other in the early nineteen-hundreds, even the models used by some researchers. The brothers eventually turned their attention to creating a flying machine that would house a motor.

Of course, some naysayers believed that humans were not meant to fly like birds.

The invention of the computer (1). Without Charles Babbage around 1821, we wouldn’t be in the digital era, as we are today. Charles Babbage was the inventor of an original mechanical computer, called the Difference Engine, which has led subsequent inventors to create more complex electronic designs.

The Difference Engine made for impressive technology, despite it not meeting his own vision. Today, computers are all over the place. Just check your smartphone.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the latest line on the technology sand (1). We hear many opinions about the pluses and minors of AI. We even hear from politicians on both sides of the political spectrum and authority who want to put the break on the technology because they are afraid that it might substitute our own human intelligence. What is worse, the substitution might not even be noticeable to most of us.

Artificial intelligence started as a field of study. Created at a Dartmouth Conference where a group of researchers first coined the term “artificial intelligence.” They envisioned creating machines that could simulate human intelligence.

Although AI was really noticeable in the nineteen fifties when some physicists used the term to describe their own inventions, AI started in an evolutionary way. I remember the required AI course in my Computer Technology Doctoral program. It was not a course where we could use it widely. I also recall our interest in using it to help the blind move about without much risk. I don’t have to add, but will, that many of my courses were at the time long distance virtual classes, only a few requiring presential.

Applications like IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997 and further demonstrated the potential of AI in specific domains.

How Does AI Impact Work? (1)

The integration of AI into various industries has been a significant trend, as well. In healthcare, companies like LG have developed AI for medical imaging analysis. In the finance industry, AI techniques are familiar in applications like fraud detection, algorithmic trading, and risk assessment.

In creative fields, generative AI has started helping designers, project managers, and marketers work more efficiently. We’ve already seen it used in advertising campaigns. Using AI in business means that teams have new mediums to brainstorm and collaborate with.

They can also use it to create added content, and use said content for commercial purposes.

The History of AI Continues. (1) But it’s important to note that the future of AI is dynamic and subject to both technological advancements and societal considerations. The trajectory of AI will depend on the ethical, legal, and social frameworks that guide its development and deployment.

AI will change the world for good . . . if we develop it ethically (1). It is in the hands of industries to do so, and it is in the hands of consumers to demand ethical AI products.

I have left out another line, an older line, that obviously has had an effect bigger than Artificial Intelligence, and no one has rejected it: Natural Intelligence. That’s the one that has created every marvel we have seen, including the lines I mentioned or quoted above, and makes us proud. And, sad to say, has created every damage we have imposed on each other and nature. Discriminations, wars, abuses, sexual or otherwise, and let’s not forget how we look at each other’s colors of the skins and accents of our speech. We have not finished crossing that line, but we should be careful before we do. Sometimes vehicles come from the other side and hit us.

And that’s my Point of View today. So Long.