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There are very few subjects in technology and science that cause as much excitement and debate as artificial intelligence (AI). But with this excitement and rising interest comes a lot of speculation and unfounded beliefs that only create fear and doubt. There are a lot of myths about artificial intelligence promoted through popular culture, but what is the actual reality?

Myth #1: Artificial Intelligence Will Replace All Jobs

Many fear that as artificial intelligence progresses, people will end up replaced by machines and lose their jobs. Although it’s true that the development of artificial intelligence and automation has the potential to disrupt labor, it’s not as straightforward as that. AI is in no way different than any other technological advances that have appeared throughout history. In fact, just like other technological advances have helped people and processes become more effective, AI will likely do the same thing. Seeing this as just transferring the jobs from humans to machines is a simplification of the situation.

Many of the previous industrial revolutions have led to a transformation of the employment situation, like the shift from agricultural work to factories in the 19th century. But, even though this happened, the number of jobs has generally remained consistent. It’s possible that the rise of AI and automation will generate a productive environment that will allow people to be more efficient and reduce the time wasted on manual tasks. 

Myth #2: Artificial Intelligence Will Outpace Human Intelligence

With today’s cinematic industry covering more and more science fiction movies that show robots will take over the world and enslave humanity, the fear of AI replacing human intelligence is very common. However, this is a common misconception that has been brought by the image of intelligence as a linear scale and placing humans below the machines on it. 

The reality of the situation is that intelligence is measured through various dimensions, where the scales are much different between machines and humans. Yes, machines do outpace humans in some aspects, but there are many aspects where humans outpace machines, like emotional intelligence (empathy as the most important one), creative ability, and strategic thinking.

Myth #3: AI Will Lead to Destruction and Enslavement

Movies like “The Terminator,” “I Robot,” “The Matrix,” “Ex Machina,” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” have placed unrealistic scenarios in people’s minds. Because of those sci-fi scenarios, people fear the development of AI and robots. The possibility of this happening exists, and the danger can be real, but the reality of artificial intelligence is that there are many boundaries that would need to be broken down to see this happen. 

For one, the people who create different AI technologies and robots wouldn’t think about creating or launching an autonomous machine that has the possibility to think with its own mind and oppose and revolt against its human creators. Is it possible that this might happen in the future? Yes, it is a possibility, but if you’re going to worry about a science fiction scenario, you might as well prepare for alien invasions. 

Myth #4: You Need Data Scientists and Machine Learning Experts to Use Artificial Intelligence

Although many do not understand how artificial intelligence works, that doesn’t mean all machine learning, deep learning, and AI technologies require professionals to be used. Some AI applications do require the assistance of experts, but the reality is that these are just a small percentage. Nowadays, a growing number of software tools that have AI technologies are very accessible to average users. There are many tools that are available to different users and don’t need any huge investments to be used.

Training an AI system is a mysterious concept to many that is frequently shrouded in technical language and treated as a task that only data scientists can handle. For some applications, the information that is used when training AI systems is frequently the same information that a call center associate would handle. AI technology does need deep expertise in programming languages and various sophisticated techniques to be created and modified, but that doesn’t mean you would need an AI expert with a Ph.D. in the field to have your own AI program or use one that already exists. 

Myth #5: AI Technologies Can Understand and Solve Any New Problems Like the Human Brain Does

This is a complete myth about AI without any truth in it. In reality, cognitive technologies cannot solve problems for which they weren’t designed to solve. These cognitive technologies can approach and address certain types of problems that usually need human interpretation. They can typically solve problems that use image recognition, ambiguous language, and execution of complex tasks with precise conditions and outcomes that are not predictable. But, these technologies cannot solve problems they have never encountered. 

Cognitive AI technologies have the ability to simulate how a human being would deal with ambiguity and nuance, but they are nowhere near to learning new problem areas. Any artificial intelligence program is only as good as the data on which it is trained. Humans still need to define the cases and scenarios that the AI program will operate under. An AI program will work within those cases and scenarios, but it will not define new scenarios to operate in. This capability is what general AI will be able to do, but we’re nowhere near it – and it is debatable if we ever will be.