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Is AI a Conscious Technology?

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In 2023 there has been so much hype about AI and how it can make work easier. AI has advanced such that it can drive cars, recognize voices or even compose music. Initially, people used AI in many ways, but they didn’t realize it. For instance, voice search and applications such as Siri have been there for a while. Surprisingly, many people needed to be made aware that it uses AI technology.

How does the human mind compare to AI?

One advantage of AI is that it can efficiently process complex information. Its downside is that it never does it consciously. On the other hand, the human brain can process complex information but does it consciously.

The fact that the human mind can generate subjective experiences is one thing AI will never beat. There’s likely no such thing as artificial consciousness.

AI consciousness research

There has been plenty of research that has been done regarding consciousness.

Ned Block, for instance, found out that consciousness is grounded in biology, and thus, synthetic systems such as AI cannot have absolute consciousness.

On the other hand, Cambridge believes that biological brains are not necessary for consciousness; thus, engineered solutions such as AI can still attain consciousness. Cambridge believes that engineered conscious AI is on its way and will be available by the end of the century.

Dr. Tom McClelland, a lecturer at Clare College, believes that both parties are wrong about consciousness as most people do not know much about consciousness.

Human consciousness is mysterious in a way. Cognitive neuroscience can tell what exactly is going on when you read an article, such as your perception, understanding, evaluation, etc. It, however, cannot tell your conscious experience. Is that consciousness?

Then neural patterns typically occur when you process information consciously, but there’s no distinction between conscious and unconscious neural processes.

If humans understand what makes us conscious, it’s possible to know whether AI has what it takes.

What makes us conscious is the integration of information in the brain. And if that’s the case, then AI can undoubtedly be conscious.

If humans are conscious because of neurobiology, no programming will make AI conscious. The problem is we are still determining if it is true.

When we know the limitations of human understanding, we can see the possibility of AI consciousness.

AI must be treated like any other tool if it does not have subjective awareness.

It’s still unclear whether AI is conscious or not. What options do humans have?

1. Assume AI is not conscious

Even though AI systems are getting more complex and sophisticated by the day, we should not consider them when making moral decisions.AI is a product of unconscious processes and should be treated that way.

2. Assume AI is conscious and treat it with caution

That means we should assume that sophisticated AI is sentient. This may, however, come with an ethical disaster. We might use valuable resources

but still risk our morality.

Since there are pros and cons to both approaches, it is better to take precautions until you clearly understand the consciousness

When proposing a global moratorium on creating artificial consciousness, Thomas Metzinger argues that if we wait to understand consciousness fully, we might wait for a very long time. This may deny the world the benefits of sophisticated AI technology. He believes that even with the moratorium, there is a risk of having conscious AI. There is also a chance that conscious AI is already here.

What does the future hold?

There is a need for philosophers and cognitive scientists to work on consciousness, but there is unlikely they will get a solution now. People should reflect on why they value consciousness. Are subjective experiences really worth it?

Undoubtedly, if conscious AI is not here already, it will be soon.

AI being conscious does not stop the technology from breaking barriers and causing an impact. AI will only improve with time, with more adoption expected in the market.

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Gulf Congress 2023: A Must-Attend Event for Tech Professionals

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The 6th Edition of the Gulf Congress on Cybersecurity is an invite-only event that seeks to bring industry professionals together to discuss the opportunities and challenges around cybersecurity. This event is organized by Agora Group, an international company that connects firms to African and Arab markets. The Gulf Congress is a melting pot for CEOs, CIOs, COOs, and key decision-makers across governments, where they meet, brainstorm, and learn about emerging trends on cyber security.

Over the years, the Gulf Congress has morphed into a global event that is a must-attend for policy-makers across industries and governments. It continues to attract top professionals from industries such as finance, tech, oil and gas and healthcare. Some of the benefits of attending this event are: you get a chance to meet and interact with the movers and shakers of global trade. Secondly, since it is an invite-only event, attendees get a chance to have one-on-one meetings. Finally, buyers and sellers get a chance to have meetings that have been pre-arranged.

Discussion topics for this year’s congress will include the following: Supply Chain Risks and Cloud Security Challenges, Forensic and Cyber Crime, Virtual Reality, and DeepFake. This year’s event is scheduled to be held on the 9th of May 2023 in Dubai, UAE. It’s a one-day event that will include multiple activities that will start in the morning, with registrations and key presentations, and end in the evening with a training session.

Mehran Muslimi to Speak

Notable speakers who will grace this year’s event are: Anett Numa, a defense advisor to the Ministry of Estonia, Dr. Hoda AlkhZaimi, Co-chair of the World Economic Forum, and Mehran Muslimi, a world-renowned Fintech, and Blockchain Consultant. Mr. Muslimi is a senior tech consultant, angel investor, and entrepreneur with interests in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and cyber-security. Mehran has worked on multiple IT projects, with the most notable one being the development of a mobile VOIP application 9 months before the development of Viber. He is currently actively involved in blockchain space with multiple ongoing projects in the fintech ecosystem.

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Will the Worldcoin’s SDK take over biometrics?

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Worldcoin has a new idea of providing proof of personhood in the entire world with the release of its software development kit and updated protocol.

The project aims to lower the number of fake social media accounts to prove whether you’re chatting with a human or a chatbot. This will help in reducing fraud and helping people to be confident in their dealings on the internet.

Discord was the first platform to enjoy the integration of Worldcoin. Discord users can sign in with a world ID which helps to prove they are human and gives them special privileges.

Contrary to expectation, the protocol and world ID do not give proof of who a person is. Since no biographic information is collected, it has no way to prove the person using it is the same one who did the registration. It can only prove that one is a human and not a bot.

There have been many controversies regarding the project, with some considering it a scam experiment that would exploit vulnerable people. There are so many loopholes in the project.

The rollout of Worldcoin

World coin has so far registered up to 1.36 million individuals. The project used the strategy of scanning the iris of people in the communities in the world. It started in Indonesia and spread to other areas.

Although it started with 250 custom-built iris-scanning orbs, it has expanded to 50,000 scanning devices.

The central vision of Worldcoin as a cryptocurrency is to create a world where everyone has an equal chance to redistribute wealth. With this, there was a need to verify whether an individual had already been registered. This inspired the team to introduce iris scanning for more accuracy.

Upon registration, users were promised 25 Worldcoins once the cryptocurrency launched. Although the project’s goal is to go worldwide, some places have restrictions, such as Cuba; some US states, such as Illinois, Texas, Washington, Portland, Oregon, Maryland, and Baltimore, are not allowed to be part of the project.

Controversies about the projects

The IEEE Spectrum did an experiment and realized that World ID would be much bigger than cryptocurrency. The IEEE argues there has been little transparency regarding the project and how everything will be launched.

According to research done by MIT, there have been cash bribes and payments to local officials to promote signups to the platform. In the rollout of the project, more personal details were collected than those that were promised. It means they are capturing more biometrics than they had promised.

Dr Maggie Cheeseman from Mineiro Central Technology and Democracy argues that Worldcoin is one of the many scam experiments worldwide.

Another controversy is that the latest SDK release on the protocol does not mention Worldcoins.

The company is currently looking for a $120 million investment at a valuation of $3 billion before it goes public in the last quarter of the year.

World ID integration

The Worldcoin and World ID are intertwined and work hand in hand.

To get started, a user will need to download the World app. The app will be rolled out in 50 countries apart from the UK. The app will generate a private key for the world ID. A user will then need to go through two levels of verification, which will be linking a mobile number or undergoing an iris scan for both eyes using the chrome effect Orb.

When you go to an Orb, it uses biometrics to determine whether you have previously verified or not a world ID. If you have not, it will stamp the passport. And when you use the World ID, take that passport to show the page with a stamp that will prove that you’re unique and one of the World IDs.

It, however, does not reveal any other personal information about yourself. This is not the same as biometrics; you must verify personal identification at every point.

When the Orb captures the iris, it creates an iris hash and sends it to the Worldcoin public key to store in its central database. If it gets into the database and there’s a duplicate, the region registration is rejected. If not, the IRIS will be added to the public key and enter the Worldcoin blockchain. The iris code cannot be deleted from the system.

According to the head of product Tiago Sada, the passport stamp is just a stamp, and it’s not linked to a person’s biometrics. It is just proof that a unique person on the world ID private key. It proves that the owner has a unique World ID but does not reveal any further information on who they are.

A smartphone acts as a private key for more security. The new users who use a desktop will still be redirected to the smartphone.

Although getting a world ID is not complicated, it takes a while to reach an Orb. This is because when you download the World app, it will generate a random private key, which will continue as your World ID.

There is a low level of verification as you need to verify your mobile number, and for further modification, you will need to visit Orb.

Worldcoin partnered with Twilio to do telephone number checks for more security. This allows developers to use signals such as phone number verifications in addition to the iris code.

As a rule of the app, you need to have biometric verification to use the features of the app.

Personhood versus identity

As mentioned earlier, there are no biographic details captured on registration. The goal of World ID is to prove personhood/individuality. Other biographic details such as name and age have to be added through other integrations if there’s a need.

According to Sada, it’s not an issue if the current system does not prove that the unidentified user is the same one who initially registered on the platform. They are working on how to avoid the duplication of the iris.

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Health and Education to benefit from rise of AI ,says Bill Gates

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At the beginning of the year, Chat GPT brought a lot of buzz to the market. This has seen more people adopt AI for their day-to-day activities.

Bill Gates recently drafted a seven-page letter addressing AI and its possibilities for the future. The Microsoft co-founder published a letter that the age of AI has begun. AI is a good way of solving inequities in the world.

He believes AI can solve problems in three primary industries: healthcare, education, and productivity. The letter was published the same day Google released its AI chatbot bird which joins chat GPT and many other AI softwares.

Even though Bill Gates talked about many benefits of technology in the letter, he also underlined the risks of the technology, such as being misused by humans. The letter discusses how AI will revolutionize and increase productivity while addressing global inequalities, especially in developing countries. Health and education are the main areas that need AI, as there are insufficient workers to meet the demand. Billy Gates also believes the two will significantly help reduce inequity.

Productivity

According to Bill Gates, AI will help do basic everyday activities, such as administrative tasks, increasing productivity. In his opinion, when AI is integrated into digital tools such as Microsoft Office, it can help write and manage emails. It can also support different people in a company, such as sales and administration, to do repetitive tasks. Tasks such as handling documents, creating content, arranging data, etc., can be handled by AI, helping them to focus on more productive tasks.

AI is likened to having an assistant helping you to do different tasks. In the future, it will be like a digital personal assistant that will be able to read your emails and know the tasks you have at hand. It will help you in scheduling and communications. All you will have to do is to train it.

An increase in productivity will free up society as people will have the freedom to focus on other things and increase work-life balance.

Health care

AI will be a real game changer for the healthcare industry. For instance, it can speed up the healthcare process by doing tasks such as filing insurance claims, doing paperwork, and analyzing doctor reports.

In developing countries, AI can help healthcare workers be more productive. It can also aid in treating those who do not live near health facilities. They can do triage and get advice on how to deal with their situation.

AI is commonly used for analyzing medical data and drugs and in the supply chain of medicine and medical equipment. Billy Gates believes that AI will lead to medical breakthroughs as it will accelerate data analysis to understand complex systems. This will help identify the source of diseases and design of drugs. There are already some companies using the technology to design cancer drugs.

It will commonly be used to predict diseases and different medications’ side effects. AI can also be used for automatically calculating the dosage required.

When it comes to crops and livestock, AI-generated insights can help design seeds suitable for certain climates and help develop vaccines for the animals.

AI will aid in advising farmers on best practices based on the soils and conditions in their area.

Education

Technology has brought many changes in the education sector, and AI will even accelerate it further.AI will change how teachers and students operate.

Teachers will have to adapt according to the changes. AI will help deliver content according to a student’s learning style and stage in the learning process. This will help to keep students engaged and love learning.

It will also help plan educational content and assess student’s comprehension of the topics. Even though AI will play a significant role in education, it will never replace teachers.

It will help low-income students access education and improve their skills, especially in maths. He believes that when students are good in math, it allows them to be good in other areas.

It will also help students with writing essays and doing different assignments.

Even though AI is going to bring so many changes, it will have to be trained to be able to work efficiently. It may have to learn different languages in some areas to deliver what is required.

AI will foster innovation and will get more intelligent with time.

As much as AI is intelligent, it comes with many risks. In most cases, it is not able to understand a human context. It also has issues with abstract reasoning; hence it is likely to give you wrong math answers. AI can also be used for malign purposes. As the technology evolves, there are chances the risks will be solved.

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