New technological inventions make everyday life easier and more convenient. As helpful as these inventions are, they also are not without their downsides. In fact, they sometimes pose more of a challenge than benefit to the public. These examples are a few of the challenges that overshadow some of today's greatest innovations.
Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a mainstay in society today. People think nothing of using Siri to find answers on their mobile browsers or Amazon's Alexa to play music or turn off their lights at home.
As innovative as artificial intelligence is, it also presents a challenge to the way that modern society operates. Nanely, AI is allowing machines to become so sophisticated that they actually are capable of learning on their own without any human interference. As they process data, they can quickly figure out processes and challenges for which human intervention would have been necessary to overcome in the past.
As they become more sophisticated, they pose the risk of taking the place of humans in everyday life. Already, AI has led to human workers being replaced in industries like food service and manufacturing. It is a very real possibility that AI could lead to machines taking the place of doctors, surgeons, and other specialists in the near future. Humans may become an obscure part of society if AI is not confined to reasonable limits in everyday life.
Another challenge to innovations today is the role and limitations of cyber security. A recent study showed that 97 percent of the world's businesses have been hacked at some point. When a company is breached in such a way, it can take it up to four months to detect and deal with the hack.
Further, because of virtual technology, there are more entry points for hackers to get into a company's system today. Minimizing this risk of being breached demands that global companies today build a strong and reliable network of vendors and corporate partners. Together, they can quickly detect a breach in their systems and immediately neutralize the threat to their companies and their customers.
Crypto currency is already becoming popular with consumers around the world. Examples like Bitcoin and Ethereum are now largely viewed as relatively common and legitimate sources of funding.
However, crypto currencies are not backed by any government or institution, which could pose a risk to how stable and trustworthy these currencies really are. The solution for destabilization of crypto currency thus far has been blockchain, which itself is ledger system used to validate and protect currencies and other assets.
Blockchain is already being applied to a large number of industries including banking and mortgage brokering. It is even being used to register and keep track of conflict diamonds. Blockchain could potentially build and restore the public's trust in crypto currencies.
The Internet of Things is a phrase used to describe the interconnectivity of devices like smartphones, computers, tablets, and fitness watches that use and rely on the Internet for their everyday functions. It poses a challenge to innovation simply because of the sheer amount of data that the Internet of things generates on a daily basis.
Companies, for example, are tasked with deciding how to use the Internet of things to their advantage. They must figure out how it will affects their customer-facing applications.
Businesses must also identify and solve the potential security risks that the Internet of things can pose to their operations. While the generation of huge amounts of data may seem like an advantage to companies, it can actually pose a challenge to security systems and the confidentiality of sensitive customer information.
Today's innovations are designed primarily to make everyday life more convenient and fluid. However, this technology is being developed at a pace with which people sometimes find difficult to keep apace. Innovation has the capability of overtaking many aspects of daily life. The challenge lies in deciding how to keep it in check and for what purpose should it really be used.
