Will drones and droids take our jobs? Perhaps, but that isn’t the full picture. We explore how robots might work alongside us, rather than replacing us
Ask most people what they think about artificial intelligence, and the first words on their lips are scare stories. The robots that are coming to take our jobs, the algorithms leaving us nowhere to hide, the killer drones poised to swoop from the skies. The risks are real, but there is potential in this ‘fourth Industrial Revolution’ to transform our lives for good, too. Here are five examples for starters.
1. Small is beautiful
Green optimists dream of a future powered by solar, wind and other renewables, backed up by an energy storage network – from cast farms of batteries right down to batteries in individual homes and electric cars.
AI promises to make this dream come true, balancing power supply and demand with rigorous precision, ensuring that there’s just the right amount of electricity when and where it is needed. It can turn homes into energy utilities, too, negotiating the buying and selling of micro amounts of power, with the millions of financial transactions involved being handled seamlessly via secure blockchain connections. This could make viable a whole range of energy innovations, such as ‘solar sprays’, turning every wall and roof into a micro-power plant.
2. Policing pollution
We may fret over the ‘surveillance society’, but there’s another side of the ‘lidless eye’ of AI. Thanks to a mix of sensors, drones and satellites, all communicating and comparing data, it can keep a close watch on the health of the environment, virtually down to every field and street.
This means that polluters will have nowhere to hide. What’s more, businesses will be able to swiftly spot where every single one of its source materials comes from and monitor their manufacture – and the welfare of their outsourced workforce. By making supply chains visible to all, there will be no carpet under which to sweep dodgy, dirty business practice.
Good journalism can be about good things too.
3. Farms with a future
AI isn’t just for city slickers. Agriculture, too, will benefit. Crop-picking robots could mean an end to labour shortages that see fruit rotting…
