California - Stanford's 2023 AI Index report highlights the alarming impacts of the rapid proliferation of technology, where AI models are becoming smarter, bigger, and faster. The report also points out the misuse of AI technology in deepfakes, facial recognition, and questionable surveillance efforts. The report recognises India as playing an increasingly important role in the AI ecosystem and ranks it at the top in AI skill penetration. However, only 35% of Americans felt positively about emerging tech products, while respondents from China, India, and Saudi Arabia are optimistic about Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Analytics, etc.
The report analyses world nations' performance in research and development, technical performance, AI ethics, the economy, education, public and governance, diversity and public opinion. It essentially tracks, collates, distills, and visualises data related to AI. In 2022, industry produced nearly 32 significant machine learning models compared to just three by academia, which can be attributed to the lack of data, computer power, and money.
The report also highlights incidents related to the ethical misuse of AI systems that have increased 26 times since 2012, according to the AIAAIC database. The misuse includes deepfake incidents, monitoring via speech recognition, and information retrieval. The report also points out the serious environmental impacts of AI systems, where developing AI systems can be incredibly energy-intensive. However, the report suggests that AI systems can be used to optimize energy consumption.
While the report recognises India at the apex in developing AI skills, China dominates the chart in the installation of industrial robots since 2021. The study also suggests that both countries are optimistic in their approach to the AI ecosystem, while Americans are somewhat reserved about adopting AI tools owing to the drawbacks. The report highlights that at least 24% of GitHub's AI projects were contributed by software developers in India.
The major causes of resentment towards AI include concern about the loss of human jobs, surveillance, hacking, and digital privacy, human bias coded into AI, and the lack of human connection. However, there is a steering rise in the demand for AI-related skills in labour markets. Overall, the report provides an in-depth analysis of the current state of AI, its impact, and its future prospects.