Are robots really going to replace humans? According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report, as much as 20-30% human jobs are at risk of being replaced by machine-based automation by 2030. But will artificial intelligence threaten human relationships as well?
Having grown-up watching sci-fi movies such as Star Wars and ET, I too wanted my own non-human friend. While an alien being left behind on earth and becoming my best friend seemed unlikely (I was precocious but practical from an early age), having a robot as a friend seemed highly probable. I was confident that in some years new technology would ensure that I had my very own C-3PO, or at least an R2-D2.
Fast forward to now, technology has advanced at an exponential pace. Artificial Intelligence (AI) robots are already much smarter than C-3PO (please don’t kill me Star Wars fans). Sophia, the AI robot, took the world by storm in 2017 when she became the first robot to receive citizenship of a country.
I have watched the media coverage around Sophia with great interest, and secretly imagined having her as a friend. While Sophia is very cool and funny (good job programming, Hanson Robotics), the reality is that robots cannot replace humans as friends.
Here are my top three reasons why:
1. Wisdom, and the ability to think
In a keynote speech last year Jack Ma said, “Technology will never replace human beings. There’s one simple reason for that – we possess wisdom.” While this was said in a professional context, Jack Ma’s statement is relevant for relationships as well. Humans are wise, able to think on their feet and give us their valuable point of view. Thus, making better friends.
2. The human touch
Alan Finkel, Australia’s chief scientist, said in a speech delivered in a conference in Sydney in last year, “We don’t just speak in human, we speak as humans. That human touch is hard to replicate, and even harder to reduce to a formula and scale.”
“A robot that says that science is fun is delivering a line. A human who says that science is fun is telling you something important about being alive.”
–Alan Finkel
Our interactions with a person are not just based on what we’ve learnt from that person, but also what we have picked up consciously and subconsciously all our lives. All of those learnings combine with our ‘human’ feelings and make us react in a certain manner. We don’t always think in black or white. Our human feelings make us capable of operating in grey areas, making us kinder friends.
3. Context, and the ability to cry
Human emotions are very complex, not understood well enough by humans themselves. And thus understandably, humans have been unsuccessful in translating and programming these complex emotions in robot. This lack of understanding of feelings and inability to relate to context make robots undesirable as friends.
After all, friendship is about caring and sharing. Imagine a friend who couldn’t share any of our emotional moments with us, who couldn’t even understand what we’re going through. Would we be able to call it a friendship then?
The Terminator movies put a fear in us – of machines taking over the human race sometime in the distant future. Elon Musk believes that AI offers a serious existential threat to humans. Here’s a fun infographic from Daily Infographic on his future predictions.
Infographic via Daily Infographic
It is interesting to note that though Elon Musk predicts that AI will post a threat to the human race, but follows it up with the colonisation of Mars by humans. Clearly, the humans emerge victorious in the war between humans and AI robots (okay, I’m getting carried away by the Terminator movies).
On a serious note though, maybe the reason humans will survive is love and friendship. So switch off your mobile phones or desktop (especially now that you’ve come to the end of this article), and spend some one-on-one time with your family and friends.
Because love is not all you need, you also need human friends to love.
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