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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Listen to the Intro
AI 2041 summary
Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan
Ten Visions for Our Future
30 mins
Brief summary
AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan explores how artificial intelligence will shape the world in the next two decades. They present scenarios where AI could help solve some of our biggest problems, while also acknowledging the challenges and ethical implications of this technology.
Table of Contents
AI 2041
Summary of 9 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 9
AI can help you optimize your life – but it can also weaponize your data.
In Mumbai, in 2041, Nayana’s family dramatically lowered their insurance premiums by signing up with a new insurance company called Ganesh Insurance. The catch? They had to agree to share all their personal data with the company.
Ganesh instructed the family to use a certain set of apps for everything from investing to finding the best supermarket deals, and over the next few weeks, their phones were constantly pinging with recommendations. The apps told them when to drink water, instructed her grandfather to drive more slowly, and nagged her dad so much about his smoking that he eventually quit. With every healthy decision they made, their insurance premiums fell. It seemed like a win-win for everyone.
But when Nayana fell in love with a man who lived in a less-wealthy neighborhood, the family’s premiums soared. Somehow, the AI had inferred that he was of a different social status, and interpreted that as a health risk to the family.
The key message here is: AI can help you optimize your life – but it can also weaponize your data.
Nayana’s story provides a chilling insight into how AI can reproduce the discrimination already present in society. One of the most significant AI developments in the last decade has been deep learning. Deep learning allows computers to make predictions, classify data, and recognize patterns. Deep learning is the technology Facebook uses to generate personalized recommendations and maximize the time you spend on its network. By analyzing every click you make and comparing your data to the millions of others in their system, the platform is able to accurately predict what will engage you.
Deep learning can have enormous benefits. AI can analyze millions of data points, and make connections that would elude the human mind. But AI lacks the nuance and complexity of human thinking. It can’t draw on personal experience, abstract concepts, or common sense.
And AI is vulnerable to bias and discrimination. In Nayana’s story, the app didn’t know that her love interest was from a different “caste” and that the match would be seen as socially undesirable. But by analyzing his family’s data and tracking where he lived, it still suggested that the match would be a “threat” to the health of Nayana’s family. Deep learning will only grow more prevalent and powerful in the years to come. The question of how to make it beneficial to society as a whole will be one of our most urgent preoccupations in the near future.
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What is AI 2041 about?
AI 2041 (2021) is a provocative work of speculative fiction with analysis that explores the ways in which AI will shake up our world over the next twenty years. We’re just at the beginning of the technological revolution that AI will bring. By imagining what that future will look like, we can start preparing for the changes to come.
Who should read AI 2041?
- Entrepreneurs wanting to learn about how AI will transform the world of work
- Sci-fi lovers interested in exploring techno utopias and dystopias
- People curious about how societies are affected by changing technologies
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