Whatever you do, artificial intelligence is keeping a watch on you: Kundana Lal, President, Vitti

Kundana Lal, President of Vitti Research Foundation, in a guest lecture with JECRC University, talked on the topic – Rise of AI and Impact on Industrial and Social Fabric. Lal, an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in leading IT businesses, spoke with the motto to evangelise an accelerated growth of Artificial Intelligence Research and Implementation in India.

The lecture started with the narrative that AI will be a disruptive force. He underlined that we need to understand the increasing role and development of AI and appreciate its impact. He also distinguished between Artificial intelligence, as we know it today and Artificial Super Intelligence, the future of AI. Quoting many thought leaders, Lal stressed the fact that the future of AI is automation, and it may even surpass human capabilities.

Artificial intelligence is all around us

Lal emphasized that whether or not we believe it, but AI is all around us. "The way we travel and shop, the way we do our businesses, the way we socialize, the way we do our politics, AI is everywhere. For example, most brick-and-mortar shops use AI to match customer's online preference as opposed to physical ones. Facebook recognises the person you might want to tag in a photo by scanning it. The company also played a huge role in helping people vote during the US elections as it exactly knew your political affiliation," he said. "A friend conversed with his wife about going to Nepal for a vacation and the next day, his feed was filled with ads about Nepal tourism. Upon much thinking, he realised it was Alexa in his room, who took notice of the conversation. Whatever you do, AI is keeping a watch on you."

"From facial recognition, medical diagnostics. synthetic training data, cyberthreats and predictive maintenance, AI is going to create the most impact in the coming time. All AI technologies are going to be transformative technologies and have maximum impact on our lives, our society and the industry."

Artificial Intelligence with human intervention

Lal outlined four types of Artificial Intelligence:

1. With humans in the loop

• Assisted Intelligence: Al systems that assist humans in making decisions or taking actions. Hard wired systems that do not learn from their interactions.
  • Augmented intelligence: AI that focuses on the assistive role and learning from interactions with human intelligence and environment rather than replace it.

Without humans in the loop

• Automation: Automation of manual and cognitive tasks that are either routine or non-routine. This does not involve new ways of doing things - automates existing tasks.
  • Autonomous Intelligence: AI systems that can adapt to different situations and can act autonomously without human assistance.

In the lecture, he said, "The latter two, refer to AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence). While Artificial Super Intelligence is decades away, Applied Intelligence is here. It is monitoring our every move."

Read More: Artificial Intelligence is Optimising and Automating Digital Technologies: Kundana Lal

By Laxitha Mundra. She started her professional career as a Research Assistant, and has more than 3 years of experience with the startup ecosystem. An MBA by degree and a reader by passion, Laxitha loves to talk about businesses, marketing, and build stories. Currently based in Gurugram, she can be reached at laxitham@cybermedia.co.in