It’s going to be interesting to see how society deals with artificial intelligence, but it will definitely be cool. -Colin Angle
What a phenomenal advancement in the field of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning!
In the last few years, artificial intelligence has given new dimensions to automation. Artificial intelligence has improved the productivity and efficiency of many sectors. With a massive amount of data being fed regularly, machine learning optimizes the output as if it is thinking like we humans.
I have heard here and there about the use of artificial intelligence almost all walks of life, whether it is about a driverless car or use of digital surveillance driven artificial intelligence for several applications. USA’s drones now can reach the precise location, drop the bombs, return and land on the moving ship.
Now let us think about our political scenario to evaluate why something is not right.
World over, political practices are in decline. I was shocked to see the advertising expenses by political leaders. Just imagine, we work hard, earn money, pay taxes and then, our tax money is used in advertising to tell us that we are doing so great. What a joke! Come on, we have worked hard and we know that we are doing great. This is just one example. In every country, these leaders are throwing our money the way they want to as if it is their own money.
Recently, I read in an Indian newspaper that 1% of Indian population increased its wealth by 37% in 2018. The statistics itself suggests that something is wrong somewhere. What kind of wealth distribution is this? I am neither the leftist or the rightist. But I know this is not justified.
A few years ago I visited India. I saw some road work in progress in a posh locality of Mumbai. A few frail and unhealthy looking men were doing something at the side of the road. Out of curiosity, I went to have a closer look. What I saw shocked me. These men were laying fibre optics cable with very bare minimum tools. Problem is, these powerful people don’t want to make their workers, a part of their success. There is a massive disparity in wealth distribution especially in the third world. when the top 1% of people of the country generate wealth for themselves.
There is no respect for the labour class. Countries like China and India are creating enormous wealth at the cost of their poverty-stricken population. That is the wrong distribution of wealth. The western world has also joined the party by offloading their manufacturing etc. to these countries to exploit cheap labour.
Technology is the solution
What surprises me, is that nobody is talking about the use of Artificial intelligence for good governance. I am not talking about using artificial intelligence in bits and pieces but as a whole networked process. Going up to the extent of technology replacing our head of states (Yes, I mean it, replacing our Prime Ministers, Presidents etc. my machines). The complete system can be managed by support staffs. Does it not shock you?
But let me explain. What happens if we get rid of our head states by implementing the right artificial strategy. Massive amount of data is anyway being generated for all financial transactions for every section of society and it is being used by the big business house to make their business more productive, more efficient and more profitable which is a good thing. But we can use the same very data to optimize the allocation of wealth in a more efficient way.
Let us understand the whole concept by an example
Let us assume that we have all the data available about all the farmers in a country, i.e. their land, what they grow in each season and their expenses. Crop collection trucks arrive when the harvest is ready, weighs the crop and the system automatically calculates the income of each farmer because we already have their expenses. And if numbers show that they are in loss, the budget allocated to agriculture automatically increased, and a predefined algorithm decides how much money each farmer deserves for survival in such a way that this year’s loss doesn’t affect the next year’s harvest. The system calculates that amount and transfers that amount to the bank account of each farmer. Isn’t that simple?
To go further, if the mining sector generates enough profit in the same year, transfer the surplus fund to the sector which struggled. That’s how you maintain the balance in the society. If the IT sector is booming, we can’t just be happy about it if the agriculture sector is not doing well. Think about it, we can’t start eating dollars if we are not able to generate food.
We can create various integrated models for each sector whether it is public transport, aviation, social justice etc. Now, if the decisions are not only taken but implemented automatically without human intervention, why the hell we require these head of states who make selfish decisions either to keep their power for the next election or to help big business houses. Because these business houses help them win elections with their ill earned money. (Remember, 1% of the population increased their wealth by 37%!!).
Artificial intelligence has the potential to precisely optimize our resource distribution system. And that is the demand of today’s world.
Concluding Words
You might find this a very crazy idea. But I am a very firm believer that today’s impossibilities may become tomorrow’s reality. Do give your comment in the comment section below this post.
As far as I am concerned, artificial intelligence-driven governance is bound to become a reality one day. The way artificial intelligence and machine learning is evolving today, it is not a question of ‘if’ but it is a question of ‘When’.