The global market for artificial intelligence (AI) has seen an unprecedented surge in interest, with predictions of a twenty-fold increase by 2030.  Although AI is experiencing rapid growth, human intervention remains essential for its continued evolution.  In recent years, AI has become a significant part of the global technology mix, with a two-fold increase in AI research since 2010, a three-fold increase in newly funded AI startups between 2013 and 2022, and an eighteen-fold increase in AI private investments in 2022 compared to 2013.

AI Adoption is Increasing

Businesses worldwide are exploring and adopting AI, with China leading in AI usage at 58%, followed by Canada (28%), the United Kingdom (26%), Australia (24%), and the United States (25%).  It is estimated that 60% of people expect AI to significantly impact their lives within the next three to five years in areas such as education, transportation, shopping, entertainment, and safety.  The impressive growth of ChatGPT, with one hundred million monthly active users by January 2023, has played a significant role in driving AI adoption and excitement.

Despite AI’s rapid growth, there remains a myth of ‘human-free’ AI, as AI incidents and controversies have increased twenty-six-fold since 2012.  AI cannot make perfect decisions without human intervention and may make costly mistakes.  Examples include Rekognition, which misidentified members of Congress as criminals, Amazon’s AI recruiting tool that displayed bias while reviewing resumes, and an AI soccer camera that mistakenly tracked a player’s bald head instead of the ball during a game.

AI struggles with tasks such as narrowing research focus, setting exploration prompts, exerting judgment, determining vital data, and explaining conclusions.  Furthermore, AI lacks human soft skills like creativity, empathy, and teamwork. While some AI applications, like ChatGPT, can pass the Turing Test, no platform has passed the Lovelace Test.

Prominent world leaders and technology experts have called for more cautious AI development.  Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, envisions AI as a co-pilot, amplifying humanity’s power, creativity, and will. Fei-Fei Li, Sequoia Capital Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, stresses that AI is made by humans, for humans, and impacts human lives and society.

Where Humans Fit Into AI

Unlocking AI’s potential requires human ingenuity in areas such as multitasking, discernment, moral decision-making, empathy, and creativity.  A prime example of human-AI collaboration is Google’s 2009 ReCAPTCHA project, which successfully digitized its book archive by leveraging human intelligence to identify words that OCR technology struggled to understand.

AI needs creativity and adaptability from humans, who must direct AI through curation by asking essential questions about focus, curation, and criteria.  By understanding our role in AI curation, we can make better use of artificial intelligence and contribute to its development.  Emphasizing human-centric commands and interactions is the key to unlocking AI’s potential and shaping a brighter future.

In Conclusion 

AI’s potential can only be unlocked through human interaction and the development of human-centric commands.  By combining the power of AI with human intelligence, we can accomplish significant tasks in a brief time, boost AI capabilities, and pave the way for the advancement of artificial general intelligence.  Recognizing our role in artificial intelligence curation can help everyone make better use of artificial intelligence, fostering a synergistic relationship between human and machine minds.