                          Homework-1

  The authors of the paper, "Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030",
discuss the findings 2015 study panel report of the One Hundred Year
Study of Artificial Intelligence, predicting how recent, as well as
ongoing advances in the various fields that Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)
is comprised of will affect and formulate society in 2030. They discuss
how Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision and
various other fields within A.I. will alter the ways in which machines and
humans interact, and how machines, as they develop “intelligence”, can be
integrated in our day to day lives to an even larger extent. However, one
important factor that I feel the authors do not give enough importance to while
predicting the future affect of Artificial Intelligence as a field is the fear
that people have of machines becoming “intelligent” might end up worsening the
quality of life that they will live, as they might end up losing their jobs to
more efficient machines. The fact that people do not trust these machines might
lead to the technology facing resistance, especially when it is being deployed
for extremely personal and intimate tasks such as the personal care industry where tasks include aiding care for the elderly.

  There are a variety of reasons why incorporating AI in such personal tasks might
face resistance from large sections of the population, and therefore the
predictions made in the paper might not come to fruition by 2030. First,
elderly people, for whom these machines will be designed might not be very
familiar with the technology being used. The authors mention that most people
who would require personalized care would not have experienced the personalized
and ubiquitous forms of technology that exist in today’s day and age before
their middle ages. This would mean that they are relatively less familiar with
the technology that is being used to perform personal and intimate tasks for them,
and as a result they would be less likely to trust those machines. If people do
not trust the machines that are designed to take care of them, they will be
reluctant to adopt the technology. So, even if the technology is widely
available for people to use, they may choose not to use it.

  Another reason why we might find it harder to incorporate AI products in the
personal care industry is because personal care has more of an emotional element
associated with it compared to other fields in which AI can (or will) be applied
and the effectiveness cannot be solely quantified in terms of efficiency with
which the machine does certain tasks. Human emotions such as empathy play a huge
and vital role in the personal care industry. Therefore, even if a machine
(or robot) can be trained using state of the art technology to perform a task
with near flawless accuracy, it would still not be able to effectively do its
job if it doesn’t emotionally understand and support the people it is being used
to care for.

  Moreover, as the authors discuss in the paper, even if AI products are being
deployed in the personal care industry, they will not be able to offer human
company to the people they serve. Human company provides people with emotional
support and upliftment as well as a sense of belonging. These are some things
which AI based products may not be able to overcome in the immediate future.

Bibliography: 

1) Artificial intelligence and life in 2030, A Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, September 
   2016.