Iron Man’s JARVIS Might Come To Life by 2030: Stanford Study Predicts How AI Might Alter Urban Life

Scientists at the Stanford University have released the first report of their One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) predicting the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on human life: Transportation, employment, health and household chores, by the year 2030.

According to the Stanford report entitled "Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030," robots will not only be used for housekeeping but will also serve as added security for homes. Just like JARVIS, the artificially intelligent personal concierge developed by billionaire genius philanthropist Tony Stark in the Iron Man comics and movies.

What is AI100?

One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) is the brainchild of Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research's Redmond laboratory. It is meant to create a better understanding on how artificial intelligence is being developed and how it will impact the world over the coming century.

One of the main purposes of AI100 is to allay fears regarding the possibility of artificial intelligence programs getting out of hand, similar to the premise behind the Terminator film franchise, Stanford News reports.

Predictions

The study reveals eight areas of human activity in which AI technologies are beginning to affect urban life in ways that will become increasingly pervasive and profound by 2030:

•  Transportation: autonomous cars, trucks and, possibly, aerial delivery vehicles.
•  Home/service robots: Specialized robots will clean and provide security in live/work spaces like "Dum-E and U", therobots Tony Starkuses as assistants in his workshop;
•  Health care: devices to monitor personal health and robot-assisted surgery.
•  Education: Interactive tutoring systems, much better than we have today.
•  Entertainment: the conjunction of content creation tools, social networks and AI will lead to new ways to gather, organize and deliver media in engaging, personalized and interactive ways;
•  Low-resource communities: Investments in uplifting technologies like predictive models to improve food distributions could spread AI benefits to the underserved.
•  Public safety and security: cameras, drones and software to analyze crime patterns.
•  Employment and workplace: Existing jobs are lost and new ones are created. Data analysts will be in demand as new information from A.I. increases.

While several tech leaders, such as SpaceX's Elon Musk and famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, have expressed concern about a 'skynet scenario', AI100 researchers said there is really no need to be afraid of AI programs going rogue, TechTimes reported. AiroCorp, an India based start-up is already working on making JARVIS real, according to Forbes.

"It will be possible for people to use AI-based systems for harmful as well as helpful purposes," the researchers state in the report. The AI100 researchers pointed out that if society views artificial intelligence with "fear and suspicion," it could slow down its development or drive it underground entirely. It could also impede the work that developers are doing to ensure that AI technologies remain safe and reliable.