Shaping the future of AI | Besma Kraiem | TEDxLisboa

Key Concepts

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• AI Literacy
• Hyper-acceleration of technological change
• Ethical AI implementation
• Impact of AI on jobs and education
• The digital divide
• Outsourcing of thinking
• AI bias
• The role of AI in healthcare and business
• Before 2025 (BAI) and After 2025 (AAI)

AI: A Transformative Force

The speaker emphasizes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just a technological advancement but a profoundly transformative force that will reshape the world as we know it. She posits that we are entering an era defined by "Before 2025" (BAI) and "After 2025" (AAI), highlighting the rapid and accelerating impact of AI.

• Hyper-acceleration: AI's development and adoption are happening at an unprecedented speed. The speaker contrasts the slow adoption rates of past technological revolutions (e.g., electricity taking 100 years to reach 100 million users) with the incredibly rapid adoption of ChatGPT, which reached 100 million users in just eight weeks.
• Breakthroughs: AI is experiencing breakthroughs on a weekly basis, some promising and others potentially concerning.
• AI is a Reflection of Us: AI is trained on vast amounts of data, including text, images, and code, making it a reflection of human knowledge, biases, and values.

The Promise and Peril of AI

The speaker acknowledges the immense potential of AI while also cautioning against its potential risks.

• Potential Benefits: AI can revolutionize healthcare by designing new medicines, improving diagnostics, and creating immense value for businesses by automating processes and workflows.
• Potential Risks: AI could deepen the digital divide, eliminate jobs, and be used for military purposes. The concentration of AI research and development in the hands of a few corporations (80% by a handful) raises concerns about control and ethical considerations.
• Ethical Concerns: The speaker stresses the importance of ethical AI implementation, emphasizing that AI should be used to solve real-world problems and benefit humanity, not just to generate profits.

The Need for AI Literacy and Broader Engagement

The speaker argues that AI is not just for experts and that everyone needs to become AI literate and engage in the conversation about its development and deployment.

• AI Literacy: AI literacy is not about becoming an engineer but about understanding what AI is, how it works, and how it will impact our lives, work, privacy, data, children, and future.
• Broader Engagement: The speaker calls for the involvement of ethicists, sociologists, policymakers, business leaders, educators, and healthcare professionals in shaping the future of AI.
• The Risk of Outsourcing Thinking: The speaker warns that over-reliance on AI could lead to the "outsourcing of thinking," particularly among younger generations who grow up in a world where AI readily provides information and solutions. This could hinder their ability to think independently, seek information, challenge information, and seek the truth.

The Impact on Jobs and Education

The speaker discusses the potential impact of AI on jobs and education.

• Job Displacement: Goldman Sachs predicts that AI will eliminate 300 million jobs by 2030.
• The Need for New Skills: Students need to focus on developing skills that AI cannot replicate, such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving.
• AI in Education: Educators need to understand how to use AI in the classroom in a way that enhances learning and critical thinking skills, rather than simply providing answers.

Call to Action

The speaker concludes with a call to action, urging everyone to:

• Educate themselves about AI.
• Embrace the responsibility to shape the future of AI.
• Join the debate about how AI should be developed and deployed.
• Use AI to lift humanity and empower cognitive abilities, rather than surrendering thinking processes to machines.

She emphasizes that this generation holds the key to whether AI will be used for good or ill and that it is our responsibility to make a better world. She ends by reminding the audience that AI lacks essential human qualities such as dreams, love, feelings, and the fight for meaning, which are what make us human.