Pune: Artificial Intelligence Gaining Capabilities that Surpass Humans Is Alarming – Dr Michael Spence
Pune, 15th February 2024: “The impact of artificial intelligence on various fields is currently being discussed and debated all over the world. The capabilities of Artificial Intelligence are being developed and enhanced while picturing human capabilities in mind. However, in the future, if these abilities are developed to a level beyond human capabilities, the situation may become precarious.”
In that regard, there will be a need for regulation and this need will be different for different countries according to their requirements, said the Nobel Prize winner and distinguished American economist Dr Michael Spence. He was addressing the 84th Kale Memorial Lecture organised by Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. Senior Scientist Dr Raghunath Mashelkar and Vice Chancellor of Gokhale Institute, Dr Ajit Ranade were present on this occasion.
Dr Michael Spence, in his opening remarks, pointed out that the past two decades have seen some major changes on a global scale. In a sense, Asia emerged as the centre of the world economy. There was a massive digital revolution. The pivot towards sustainable energy as well as the modernization of medical sciences due to growth in technology by leaps and bounds, increased the scope and cut costs.
The effects of artificial intelligence are being seen in various fields. While elaborating, he said that it reduces the time required for a job. He cited the example of the medical field, wherein, professionals spend 30 percent of their time working on writing a report or a paper. Thanks to advent in A.I., the first draft can be created in significantly less time. Disorders like skin cancer can now be detected accurately through imaging. Artificial intelligence has also contributed greatly to understanding the three-dimensional structure of proteins which are crucial in designing pharmaceutical products.
In his discourse, Dr Spence gave information about a research paper titled ‘The Coming AI Economic Revolution: Can Artificial Intelligence Reverse the Productivity Slowdown?’ which he wrote along with James Manyika. He briefly spoke about this paper, wherein, he commented on the subject of supply chain management and its importance in the current situation.
Kale Memorial Lecture is an annual address, instituted in the memory of the Late Co-Founder of Gokhale Institute, Shri Rao Bahadur R. R. Kale. So far, various dignitaries from India and abroad have presented their views on economics in the series of these lectures. Notable among them are Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Ambedkar, C. D. Deshmukh, Abhijit Banerjee, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Raghuram Rajan, etc.
