O PAÍS
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - THE LAST FRONTIER
INTERVIEW WITH GERSON NASCIMENTO
After all what is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is a new stage in technological evolution, succeeding those processors that were able to perform calculations and that later evolved towards the use of programmable systems. In the AI (Artificial Intelligence) model, information processing occurs based on previous experiences. A method similar to our brain, once we receive information and we will process it to acquire knowledge.
Artificial Intelligence, using algorithms, has the ability to generate forecasts. It can help predict who the next president of the country will be, which countries are most likely to spread diseases, when the next earthquake will be, how likely it is that there will be an economic crisis in the next decade, what the creditworthiness of the customers to the bank, among others.
It is readily apparent that the everyday application of Artificial Intelligence can be used both for predictions of general facts about the economy, nature or politics, as well as for predicting individual behavior.
There is no doubt about the economic and social relevance of decisions made on the basis of algorithms and it would even be difficult to imagine a modern and evolved society, without the use of algorithms. One of the most important functions of data processing through algorithms is to provide the basis for economic decisions, in order to contribute to the mitigation of business risks.
AI Ethical Risks and Challenges.
With the relevance that AI has recently received from the media, academics and political circles (mainly due to significant achievements in Machine Learning applications), there are a number of ethical challenges that arise.
AI facilitates the delegation of important tasks in autonomous systems. However, in specific circumstances, they must remain subject to human supervision. Technological developments in AI can also devalue human competences, particularly in sensitive areas, such as medical diagnosis. If, for example, within a few decades, there is a shortage of human specialists capable of diagnosing cancer, society will be ill-prepared for AI to malfunction and to deal with possible consequences.
Artificial Intelligence and Health.
The resources of Artificial Intelligence applied to health, allowed the applications of disease identification to advance to a level of greater precision. Able to perform image readings with greater precision, applications are more assertive and faster.
Thus, some equipment recognizes information that is difficult to be examined by human resources, optimizing the diagnostic capacity through integration by doctors.
When making a manual history, the clinic and doctors depend on the procedures for this information so that it is up to date and patient profiles are up to date and complete.
With electronic registration, applications can be programmed to cross clinical information in a more elaborate way.
Such a function allows a better visualization of clinical histories and, consequently, helps in the designation of interventions. Artificial Intelligence develops treatment methods based on data, thus increasing the chances of patients' recovery. For example, in the case of cancer, AI is used to produce drugs through information on genomes, making it possible to work with personalized procedures that increase the effectiveness of the treatment.
Artificial Intelligence in Financial Services.
By implementing Artificial Intelligence technology, banks would have their costs drastically reduced, in addition to improving functionality and increasing offers. With the ability to instantly find, gather and analyze large amounts of data, AI can detect alert points as they occur, which helps in detecting fraud, as well as preventing theft of funds and personal information. Companies like MasterCard and WorldPay have been using AI for many years to detect patterns of fraud transactions.
Banks around the world, especially in Europe, have begun to replace older approaches to statistical modeling with Artificial Intelligence and cognitive processing technologies. In adopting these types of applications, some banks experienced a 10% increase in sales, a 20% savings in expenses and a 20% increase in money recovery.
Artificial Intelligence technology can help with credit risk management by accurately predicting which customers are most likely to cancel the service or be unable to repay their loans. Profile analysis can determine whether someone is at high or low risk when investigating through variables, relationships, interactions, dependencies, associations and more. The proof that Artificial Intelligence is invaluable for financial services is the adoption of IBM Watson, IBM's AI solution by several banks worldwide.
In order to illustrate how vital Artificial Intelligence technology is for the financial sector, consider that 73% of people aged 18 to 35 in the US, prefer to have their financial services handled by Google, Amazon and Paypal, rather than of your own Bank.
Conclusion
There is still time, Artificial Intelligence existed in people's minds as being part of a movie theme. However, over time, we have witnessed an exponential development in this technological area, largely due to the increasing use of mathematical algorithms, becoming part of the life of humans and being present in the daily lives of people, more varied forms, although it is not noticeable.
For human beings, this is a theme that includes a wide range of ethical considerations of the limit that should be imposed on Artificial Intelligence, always being a discussion for our society, even though we already have the perception that Artificial Intelligence is here to stay.