Literally a situation of ‘adapt or die’
There is a lot of conversation around artificial intelligence, disruption and where the world is going. With this, we are reminded of the fact that we are in the fourth industrial revolution and that this revolution is driven by digital technologies.
Many believe artificial intelligence will be beneficial to many sectors of society, while others have argued that artificial intelligence poses a threat. They have questioned whether these technological advances in machine thinking would help or hinder humanity.
Computers have made enormous strides
In 2012, a team led by Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto proved that a system using a brain-like neural network could "learn" to recognise images. That same year, a team at Google led by Andrew Ng taught a computer system to recognise cats in YouTube videos — without ever being taught what a cat was.
Since then, computers have made enormous strides. According to Stuart Russell, a computer scientist at the University of California at Berkeley, artificial intelligence systems may reach a turning point when they gain the ability to understand language at the level of a college student. That, he said, is "pretty likely to happen within the next decade."
It does mean that artificial intelligence systems could read "everything the human race has ever written in every language," Russell said. That alone would provide them with far more knowledge than any individual human. The question then is what happens next.
Potential threat to the human race
Tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk recently had a war of words over the possible threat artificial intelligence might one day pose to the human race.
Musk, The Founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, worries that artificial intelligence systems could soon surpass humans, potentially leading to our deliberate (or inadvertent) extinction.
Mr Musk, alongside scientists such as Stephen Hawking, have warned of the potential moment at which artificial intelligence develops the ability to redesign itself. They warn that if this happens there could be an intelligence explosion as the machine rapidly redesigns itself before humankind could even catch up.
Musk warned U.S. governors to get educated and start considering ways to regulate artificial intelligence in order to ward off the threat.
Zuckerberg, The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, took exception. In a Facebook Live feed Zuckerberg hit back at Musk, saying people who "drum up these doomsday scenarios are pretty irresponsible."
Claiming there are many positives to artificial intelligence, he added: "If you are arguing against artificial intelligence, then you are arguing against safer cars that are not going to have accidents. You are arguing against being able to better diagnose people when they are sick. I just do not see how, in good conscience, some people can do that,” said Zuckerberg.
The value of artificial intelligence
William Mzimba, Chief Executive of Accenture South Africa, during his talk at the Insurance Conference in July, also emphasised that artificial intelligence is transforming people’s lives and how business is being conducted.
When we talk about the true existence of artificial intelligence, in the context of the industry, Mzimba said we have to look at where technology is going.
The digital revolution is disrupting the industry. Everything from Big Data to shared economy platforms is increasingly demanding change to old traditional systems and business models.
Become an intelligent insurer
If you are in the insurance space, Mzimba said, you have to start thinking of how to become an intelligent insurer. An intelligent insurer will take care of a few key things:
- It will understand that artificial intelligence is here and that it has become the new user interface;
- An intelligent insurer will partner with people in and outside the industry in order to survive; there has to be ecosystem and platform play;
- Artificial intelligence is bringing about massive transformation in the workforce and market place so the way an insurer thinks about the people that work within its organisation has to be fundamentally different from how the insurer thought about engaging with the people that work for it. It is no longer going to be about the number of people the insurer employs. It is going to be about how the insurer is sourcing intelligently to do what the organisation needs to do; and
- When an insurer deploys technology, the insurer should not be thinking about deploying technology that humans are going to, and have to adapt to, but rather deploy technology that is capable of adapting to humans. That is where the intersection of the core existence between humans and technology starts to take place and how an insurer can take advantage of that trend and leapfrog its competitors.
“It is about becoming a platform payer. Platform players collaborate and partner, they leverage extensive digital technologies, they co-create, co-exist and have an ecosystem that is extensive and that supports the customer interface and user experience. Look at, for example, online site Alibaba, the Uber app and Discovery Vitality,” continued Mzimba.
“To survive this disruptive era we need to think about operating in adjacent industries, driving a very robust ecosystem and co-existing with players that are going to help enhance offerings to service customers better. Think of Blockchain and the collaboration with reinsurers and how risk is covered collaboratively,” concluded Mzimba.
Editor’s Thoughts:
There is value in artificial intelligence. At the rate it is developing only time will tell what the future will look like. The people who are going to survive are the people who adapt and adopt. True to its meaning, it is literally a situation of ‘adapt or die’. Do you agree? Please comment below, interact with us on Twitter at @fanews online or email me your thoughts [email protected].
