Introduction

Artificial Intelligence is a new concept and it is also a logical consequence of the world we live in, a
world where new technologies surround us and have become so indispensable that it is now
impossible to do without them. But what must we think about AI? While some like Elon Musk allege
it is dangerous to have recourse to it and claim that it is

The biggest existential threat

Others like Mark Zuckerberg strongly believe it can be beneficial to Man. Who is right, who is wrong?
Should we fear AI or not?

Elon Musk is a South African multimillionnaire businessman who founded X.com (Paypal), SpaceX and
Tesla Motors.

2. What is AI?

AI is considered as a science and it involves robots or machines that would be able to do human
tasks or solve human problems because they would be able to think like a human being. According
to scientists AI could be classified in three categories:

a. Narrow AI

It is the level we have reached so far. The machine can do specific tasks because it has been
programmed to do so. Self-driving cars, for example, are part of this category. Narrow AI has allowed
robots to become Man’s assistant so they help us but they cannot take decisions by themselves as
they have not been prepared for it.

b. General AI

General AI is of course a little more elaborated and machines are no longer our assistants but they
are equal to a human. Nothing has been made yet and robots are still inferior to humans because it is
still very difficult to understand how our brain works. The idea is to make a machine that imitates our
behaviour and which could apply its intelligence to solve problems. It could think, understand, and
act like a human in any given situation.

c. Super AI

Super AI (or Superintelligence AI) is of course the utmost category. If scientists manage to reach this
level robots will be superior to any human creature, however smart they are and whatever the
domain! Scientists are quite optimistic and it is believed that this level will be reached soon after
General AI is reached.

3. Should We be Afraid of It?

If AI did some miracles in the past thanks to Alan Turing who created a machine that helped decipher
German codes during WWII and that saved over 14 million lives (see The Imitation Game), it is
commonly alleged that as long as we do not go beyond Narrow AI nothing wrong can happen. But if
machines become as intelligent as or more intelligent than Man some scientists think it could be:

the end of the human race (Stephen Hawking, a British scientist).

Machines would become our masters and instead of controlling them we would be controlled by
them, and this frightening situation would not be the topic of a science fiction movie but sheer
reality. But there is quite a long way to go.
In spite of the warnings mentioned above concerning AI, we must acknowledge the fact that AI could
be useful in fields where we have difficulty finding solutions and where life is threatened, as is the
case in hospitals, and it could help surgeons in operating rooms, by diagnosing and suggesting
treatments or treating and predicting results.

4. Conclusion

Like all types of scientific discoveries it is legitimate to wonder what can happen with them. AI is one
of them and though we all know that they can have lots of advantages they also have numerous
drawbacks that we must not underestimate for the consequences can be harmful. There are two
sides to a coin, we must not forget it and make sure that reason will always prevail when the time to
make important decisions comes.