Democratization of Artificial Intelligence: Is it a Boon or Bane?

Let's have an insight into the democratization of AI and its pros and cons

Internet is everywhere, anyone from anywhere could access it and learn many things indeed. The same applies to Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well. Anyone with access to the internet could learn and explore the realms of AI without depending on an external factor like a course or maybe a degree. Anyone who has a spark to learn AI in and out could do it just with the readily available sources. This is the exact concept of the Democratization of Artificial Intelligence.

This is where AI education is accessible to anyone and everyone. But here, is the actual problem arises: Democratization of Artificial Intelligence: Is it a Boon or Bane.

Boon

There are so many reasons to support it being a boon. For all those who can't access prestigious colleges and degrees, for those who are deprived of chasing their passion, and those who are in dire need to quench their thirst for knowledge, for everyone like this, YES! It is a boon. More than anything, the democratization of AI creates a huge impact on AI engineers, researchers, and developers for the next coming years.  This also would help accelerate the growth of AI and help it reach a greater part of society. Although, it depends on how far we are ready to accept it's widespread it very quickly.

This step also makes AI extremely affordable and accessible. From static algorithms to interesting ML algorithms, everything would just be readily available for those who want to explore AI and its denominations.

Bane

There honestly are not many downsides to the accessibility of AI, however, the major and obvious one would be ethical concerns.

One major issue is that almost every beginner AI course, discusses areas where AI can be implemented that have major ethical issues, such as healthcare. For younger kids who are beginning to learn AI, they believe that they can create AI systems to use in real systems, making them get carried away. For eager and driven young minds, they won't take no for an answer and will go straight into a project without considering the harms. This is why I fear democratization, as it puts AI in the hands of people who may not understand what they are building and why their work is potentially dangerous.

Now, this puts everyone, the learners and the professionals into danger, so the only solution is to inculcate AI ethics into the curriculum and make sure everyone knows about it such a way that, you learn AI, its techniques, and researches and then simultaneously learn the ethics and practices related to it.

The other main concern is regarding the lack of understanding.  Now understanding here means a deep insight into the theory and the practical concepts. Conceptual understanding acts as a foundation stone to any theory/practical. Now, for example, you take up a course on Udemy about AI, you would learn the complexities instead of the basics. It's good for you if you are an expert but for newcomers, Keras and Pytorch may seem like Greek and Latin. This is a major problem for the AI community because it creates engineers without a proper technical background. Lack of proper theory leads to a lack of proper practical enforcement. Now the candidate gets the certificate and all but while working on real-time projects and attending interviews, the ones with poor basics lag behind and the creamy layer takes over the industry.

After all, "it's always the survival of the fittest"

Putting it in a nutshell, the democratization of Artificial Intelligence is like a two-headed sphere. Spin the wheel and take your turn wisely. You will win the game.