Ahmed Masood Counsels the AUK Community on Artificial Intelligence

Mr. Ahmed Masood, of the Department of Architectural Engineering of the American University of Kurdistan (AUK), gave a presentation on artificial intelligence (AI) and its many applications in the AUK Auditorium on April 11. The title of Mr. Masood’s presentation was “Artificial Intelligence: Unraveling the Future.” He started by telling those in attendance what exactly “artificial intelligence” is: “computer systems that can do intelligent tasks like humans, using algorithms and data to learn and make decisions.”

The real intrigue started when Mr. Masood showed what “artificial intelligence” is. Before the audience’s eyes, he utilized a popular AI tool to make an outline for an economics blogpost. Almost instantaneously, he had his outline, which he then directed the AI to turn into the full blogpost. He recommended fact-checking but expressed confidence in the overall accuracy of the AI-generated text. He demonstrated that in a number of seconds an even greater number of couplets of poetry (on the unorthodox topic of economics, no less) were a cinch for AI. He also exhibited AI capable of turning a verbal “prompt” into a number of images matching requested specifications, first displaying works of architecture against appealing backdrops (which looked ready to adorn postcards), next displaying the intentionally off-the-wall image of a feline in knight’s armor (which looked true-to-life, despite its never existing). He revealed that AI can now seamlessly combine a video and an unrelated image, by “throwing” a picture of an astronaut performing a lunar walk at a video of a man trekking through the snow, resulting in a new video of someone moving on the Moon with much the same gait as the man in the original clip. He went on to talk about AI’s effects on aural media, from the benign of restoring low-fidelity audio in old recordings to the malignant of modifying one’s voice to trick a powerful executive into transferring millions to criminals.

Just how intrigued the audience was at Mr. Masood’s presentation was evident from the succeeding question-and-answer session. Most questions and comments related to the transformation of today’s “narrow” AI into the upcoming “AGI” (“artificial general intelligence,” which can perform any human intellectual task) and perhaps, eventually, “Singularity” (when AI surpasses human intelligence and becomes self-improving). AUK Provost Nazar Numan commented on the sea change AI can bring out in teaching and learning, stating that it could result in the extinction of outside-of-class written assignments. The influence of AI on the workplace was another common topic, with the sentiment emerging that AI can improve productivity and better human life if it is harnessed properly. The most salient conclusion from Mr. Masood’s talk and the audience’s contributions appeared in one of Mr. Masood’s slides, in fact: “Ethical guidelines must be implemented for safe and responsible use of AI.”

We live in interesting times.