Will AI replace humans in the development of AI software?
What's the story
While the development of machine-learning and artificial intelligence technology, as of now, is done mostly by humans, it could soon cease to be so. MIT, in a recent report, looked at various projects which are employing AI programs to develop machine-learning software, and the results are promising. This shift, if it happens, will come with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
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Eliminating the need for expertise in making AI software
"Currently the way you solve problems is you have expertise and data and computation. Can we eliminate the need for a lot of machine-learning expertise?," asked Jeff Dean, the leader of the Google Brain research group.
Projects
Software-developed machine learning software showing promising results
Google Brain recently used AI software to develop a machine-learning program - in the benchmark test, the program surpassed results produced by its human-developed counterpart. Other independent groups such as Elon Musk co-founded Open AI, University of Berkeley, MIT, Google DeepMind also reported considerable progress is software-developed machine-learning software. All of the above points to an upcoming revolution in AI software development.
Advantages
The advantages of software-designed machine learning programs
There is a serious dearth of human expertise in the sphere of AI software development. As a result, companies pay massive amounts to sign such experts. However, if self-starting AI programs become a reality, not only will the resource burden go down, but the pace at which machine-learning software is implemented in the economy will see a major jump.
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Using AI for mundane AI training could benefit human scientists
"Easing the burden [of training AI] on the data scientist is a big payoff. It could make you more productive, make you better models, and make you free to explore higher-level ideas," said Otkrist Gupta, a researcher at MIT Media Labs.
Disadvantages
The disadvantages of software-designed machine learning programs
Despite the promise in self-starting AI programs, it poses two major problems. Firstly, as of now, software which beats its human counterparts at making machine-learning programs requires a massive amount of computational power, and hence is a costly endeavour. Secondly, such a shift to software-designed software would enforce fears of AI replacing an increasing number of human jobs in various fields.