AI appreciation Day

Two Dallas experts on the promise and perils of artificial intelligence

Sunday July 16 is national Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day and with the debut of large language models, AI is top of mind for many people. We asked the founders of Dallas AI — Principal, AI Customer Success at IBM, Babar Bhatti, – and Head of Applied Machine Learning at Best Buy, Aamer Charania, – for input on the man versus machine debate.

Q: From your perspectives, both in your day jobs, and as founders of Dallas AI, do you think people are appreciative or scared of it?
Bhatti: People (including myself) are both excited and concerned of the risks — especially impact to competition for jobs the jobs themselves. People with knowledge about AI tools and how to use them will have advantages.

Charania: Agree, the tech population seem to be very appreciative and super excited, but with due caution. I feel the rest of the population, especially non-tech folks are still figuring it out. The ‘coolness’ factor — whether it’s Alexa and Siri, Tesla’s full self-driving automobile, or more recently, Chat GPT — is attracting tremendous interest but folks are also concerned about the impact to their jobs and misuse like deep fakes, election meddling, and the impact of ultra-personalized social media on kids.

Q: Nicolas Sabouret’s book “Understanding Artificial Intelligence,” takes the position that machines aren’t actually intelligent since they depend on the data that humans supply. What do you think are the top three issues/problems that, with human help, AI could solve in the next five years/10 years?
Bhatti:

• Personalized agents running people’s work and personal lives (like relationships and healthcare);
• Automation everywhere! From offices to manufacturing, multimodal (text, images), and of course back-office automation with workflows;
• AI flying machines.

Charania: This one is hard. I could be overoptimistic but believe there are so many critical areas where AI will accelerate solutions, if not be at the center of it. My top 3:

• Personal agents (similar to above) taking on simpler tasks like scheduling, summarizing information, coming up with draft responses;
• Solving healthcare challenges, whether it’s accelerating drug discovery, treatments, reducing costs via automation, or making healthcare accessible to populations who do not have it today;
• Making education – especially higher education — accessible to all.

Q: What invention from the past would you compare AI to – in terms of its ability to be transformational?
Bhatti: It’s a cliche but … electricity and the Internet.

Charania: Agreed — electricity, the Internet, and cell phones.

Developed over centuries, electricity extended the day, allowing people to do things like work, cook, and read after the natural light had faded. A relatively modern invention — mobile phones enabled formerly unbanked people to join the modern economy, as well as allow us to multitask and transmit information quickly. These are inventions that have forever changed the world.

Just recently the FAA awarded a special airworthiness certificate to Alef Aeronautics for its Model A flying car. Who knows? Your flying Uber could be landing in your backyard before you know it.