Alex Kipman has seen a lot of questionable takes on augmented reality and tech development in recent months. Many people are panicking about the potential for things like AI writing and music generation to finally take over creative jobs or even work in programming and tech development. These fears are understandable but are likely overblown and excessive, Kipman argues.
Why Alex Kipman Believes in Augmented Reality
Films like the Terminator series have tainted the public's understanding of augmented reality and artificial intelligence. As a result, fears of computers or robots taking over the planet have spiraled out of control and caused some people to argue that banning such programs is critical to protect the human race. Alex Kipman understands these fears but believes they are far from reality.
That's because augmented reality and artificial intelligence are impressive but only partially comprehensive. A computer's AI can make millions of computations each second and evaluate input faster than a human mind can comprehend. However, AI is only as good as the people who programmed it and doesn't have the creativity to "think" like people or make incredible leaps of logic.
Instead, Alex Kipman and others believe that AI will never replace human thought but simply improve or augment it. After all, that's all it is designed to do. For example, AI writing tools may help students quickly gather information for their essays and create a basic structure. However, professors receiving these essays immediately know that they are AI-written and claim they're only C-level or lower work.
That's because the creative human mind that uses these tools needs to polish the information provided by AI and improve its quality. AI writing tools tend to lose focus reasonably quickly (usually after about 200 words) and will begin cycling the same basic ideas. The same is true for AI development tools. That doesn't mean they aren't an essential technological advancement method.
For example, Alex Kipman sees a world where augmented reality driven by AI can help developers test new products in safer environments. Rather than testing the results of an unknown product in the real world, augmented reality can provide insights into how it might react to things like gravity, stress fractures, and impact damage. As a result, it can help tech developers better understand how their new products operate.
That's a major benefit for companies that want to test potentially dangerous products in a safer manner. While augmented reality doesn't completely replace the need for real-world testing, it does provide an alternative that companies can use that can streamline their testing and improve their process before scheduling actual tests.
Furthermore, Alex Kipman also believes we could see an increase in AI-directed programming and app development. For example, AI could gather well-known programming solutions quickly for a skilled human programmer, limiting the need to do the hard work themselves. The human programmer can then arrange these functions and programming ideas into a coherent whole that makes sense for their programming situation.
