More and more computer devices are designed to act like they are people, not machines. We as consumers demand this of them. We don’t want to have to read and type; we want our computers to talk to us and we want to talk to them. On top of that, we don’t want to have to instruct our computers in every little detail; we want them to anticipate our needs for us. Although this part doesn’t really exist yet, we would pay through the nose to have it. That’s the real driver behind the push to achieve artificial intelligence. 

Think for a minute about the effect AI will have on information security and privacy. One of the reasons that computer systems are so insecure now is because nobody wants to put in the time and drudgery to fully monitor their systems. But an AI could not only monitor every miniscule input and output, it could do it 24 X 7 X 365 without getting tired. Once it detected something it could act to correct the problem itself. Not only that, a true intelligence would be able monitor trends and conditions and anticipate problems before they even had a chance to occur. Indeed, once computers have fully matured they should be able to guard themselves more completely than we ever could.

And besides privacy, think of the drudgery and consternation an AI could save you. In a future world created by a great science fiction author, Charles Sheffield, everyone had a number of “facs” protecting their time and privacy. A “facs” is a facsimile of you produced by your AI. These facs would answer the phone for you, sort your messages, schedule your appointments and perform a thousand and one other tasks that use up your time and try your patience. When they run across situations that they can’t handle, they simply bring you into the loop to make the decisions. Makes me wish this world was real and already with us. Hurry up AI! We really need you!