How AI is making the world a better place

Only a century or a two ago, imagining machines that would make the world a better place to live in was a common phenomenon. People would come up with ideas that seemed impossible and think of things that would be as smart as humans (perhaps smarter) and do their work.

Little did they know that there will be a time their dreams will be someone else’s reality. ‘Artificial Intelligence’, a term coined by American scientist John McCarthy in 1956, is now common talk in India. In a country that’s growing towards becoming a superpower, exceeding everyone’s expectations, AI startups have attained a place from where they are only expected to grow exponentially.

Artificial intelligence startups like Niki.ai, Absentia VR, and more, have enabled the general populace to access technology at the very core of it. With mobile phones going smart, it is now easy to incorporate AI into their daily routine. The ability of machines to understand numerous languages spoken around the world and reason logically has made it reach more people.

The visit of the humanoid Sophia to India, gathered headlines in February this year. The robot was a panelist at one of the sessions at industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies’ annual event. Sophia’s breathtaking ability to reason and logic on multiple topics made it a huge hit, and the audience was overwhelmed with its responses.

The discussion paper released by government think tank NITI Aayog this year in June, titled “National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence“, and the adoption of AI in government banks has given the country a strategic breakthrough in the technology arena. The AI Saree by Indian fashion designers Falguni and Shane Peacock in collaboration with IBM Watson was also amongst some of the most viral news in 2018.

AI for social good is amongst some of the other initiatives that the Indian government has been campaigning for a long time. The incorporation of artificial intelligence in agriculture, healthcare, and education has helped improve the quality of services in these spheres.

According to Business Today, 54 million Indians will have jobs based on AI unheard of today, only 5 years from now. With AI ingressing into routine lives, and an increased number of startups developing new and improved products, it is only a matter of time when India might witness a humanoid similar to Sophia or machines that would do all we want just at a single command.