Page 137 - The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Shift 13: Artificial Intelligence and

Decision-Making

The tipping point: The first Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine on a corporate board of directors
By 2025: 45% of respondents expected this tipping point to have occurred
Beyond driving cars, AI can learn from previous situations to provide input and automate complex
future decision processes, making it easier and faster to arrive at concrete conclusions based on data
and past experiences.

Positive impacts
– Rational, data-driven decisions; less bias
– Removal of “irrational exuberance”
– Reorganization of outdated bureaucracies
– Job gains and innovation
– Energy independence
– Advances in medical science, disease eradication

Negative impacts
– Accountability (who is responsible, fiduciary rights, legal)
– Job losses
– Hacking/cybercrime
– Liability and accountability, governance
– Becoming incomprehensible
– Increased inequality
– “Falling foul of the algorithm”
– Existential threat to humanity

The shift in action
ConceptNet 4, a language AI, recently passed an IQ test better than most four-year-olds – three years
ago it could barely compete with a one-year-old. The next version, just finalized, is expected to
perform on level with a five- to six year-old.

Source: “Verbal IQ of a Four-Year Old Achieved by an AI System”:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.386.6705&rep=rep1&type=pdf

If Moore’s Law continues to develop with the same speed as it has been for the past 30 years, CPUs
will reach the same level of processing power as the human brain in 2025. Deep Knowledge Ventures,
a Hong Kong-based venture capital fund that invests in life sciences, cancer research, age-related
diseases and regenerative medicine has appointed an artificial intelligence algorithm called VITAL
(Validating Investment Tool for Advancing Life Sciences) to its board of directors.
Source: “Algorithm appointed board director”, BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-
27426942

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