Artificial Intelligence – AI is getting more real. It can help generate massive amount amount of wealth in the medium term. The investments in this field have increased significantly over the past two years. Companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber and others have significantly started to acquire companies with AI expertise.
AI is having use cases across industries like accounting, healthcare, education, the more prominent impact of AI is on the work which is more routine in nature. There have been numerous examples of companies / industries which have been impacted or disrupted through use of AI. For instance, use of Netflix has led to Blockbuster getting bankrupt. Uber and Lyft have disrupted the traditional yellow cab services in the US. Further, Uber and Lyft are themselves getting disrupted by emergence of self driving cars.
The gaming industry has seen significant development through the use of AI. Games like Go, Chess and Poker have witnessed the best of the humans being defeated by computers. South Korea has set up a USD3bn AI R&D facility after AlphaGo.
According to Mr. Jacobstein of Singularity University, there are seven drivers for AI revolution: these are 1) Capital, 2) Algorithms, 3) Hardware, 4) Data, 5) Talent, 6) Applications and 7) Responsibility. Advantages of AI include shortening process timings, augmenting human skills, improving prediction accuracy, solving complex problems accurately, increasing productivity and decreasing product and service costs.
AI will see significant investments in the future and will disrupt various industries in a positive way, there are offsetting factors such as job losses and responsibility that need to be accounted for. New players will emerge that will disrupt the traditional players and result in massive amount of wealth generation and reallocation in the long term.