By Times Team
Copyright times
By Times’ Junior Journalist Jianna Kapoor
A couple of years ago if you asked someone, “What is ‘AI?”, I’m sure they wouldn’t have a single clue.
Now when I ask my six-year-old little sister “A for what?”, instead of saying an apple she said AI.
What is AI?
AI stands for artificial intelligence. It’s a powerful tool that behaves just like humans.
It helps us to do tasks more efficiently and faster, but sometimes it makes mistakes, and even learn from them just like we do. AI makes life much easier.
These days we are so reliant on AI that we sometimes don’t even think about solving our problems ourselves and just ask AI for solutions.
For example, rather than putting effort into writing this article, I could have used AI to write this for me in about 10 seconds. But this won’t be good for my learning and growth.
What are the pros of AI?
Artificial intelligence can do things we can’t even imagine thinking about, like staying in outer space or underwater and working 24/7.
All of that is my absolute worst nightmare! It helps doctors by detecting diseases or conditions faster and provides the correct cure and medicine for it.
It makes their job much quicker and saves many lives at the same time.
For AI repetitive tasks like sending automated email or sorting data is a piece of cake.
What are the cons of AI?
One of the biggest threats with AI is it will take over our jobs, and the scary movies about aliens invading the planet will become real right in front of our eyes.
Artificial intelligence can take away emotion and creativity, making you 10 times lazier than a couch potato. This makes you dependent on AI.
AI in our lives
AI is hidden in our daily lives. From Alexa waking me up in the morning, to my dad driving me to school in his Tesla, my mum cleaning the house with a Dyson vacuum cleaner, Netflix on my television, knowing my favourite TV shows and many other daily tasks – AI is everywhere!
Amazon Alexa uses natural language processing to recognise and respond to people.
It also uses machine learning to improve its skills and memory over time.
Grok is the AI assistant in Tesla. It has systems that understand the surroundings by gathering information from cameras and sensors.
Dyson, a robot vacuum cleaner, has a navigation system which is used to avoid bumping into or getting stuck under furniture in your home.
My final thoughts on AI as a kid
AI can be useful or scary. You can use it to get feedback or let it do the task on its own.
It’s present in our day-to-day life, so it’s our responsibility to use it properly.
So let me end this with a quote that echoes my opinion on AI: “AI is likely to be either the best or worst thing to happen to humanity” – Elon Musk (CEO of SpaceX and Tesla).
Jianna Kapoor is in year 7 at Somerville Intermediate School
