Year 2027. AI embodies our best friend. Impossible to do without this invisible digital fairy, which makes our lives more fluid. She knows everything about us. It detects our emotions before we verbalize them, it anticipates our desires, optimizes our decisions. By managing thankless domestic tasks, it frees us up to imagine, love, dream, promoting the development of a creative and hedonistic society.

Year 2027. AI embodies our worst enemy. Impossible to escape its snitches housed in the hundred connected objects that scrutinize our actions and gestures even in our bed. It monitors us, makes any intimacy impossible and vampirizes our personal data. By dint of assisting us, it makes us unfit for the slightest learning effort, favoring the development of an idle and disempowered society.

Equally plausible, these two scenarios reflect the deep ambivalence aroused by the current irruption of artificial intelligence. Rarely has a technology inspired so many fears and mixed desires. This old myth of SF, born during a conference of computer scientists in Dartmouth (United States) in 1956, literally obsessed the tech giants. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Baidu or Alibaba buy billions from start-ups specializing in AI. The performances are amazing: machines are now beating poker, chess, go game and Jeopardy champions. Books, conferences, the “France IA” plan announced at the end of January by the former secretary of state for digital Axelle Lemaire… It's the buzzword of the moment.

This sometimes techno-blissful excitement is opposed by the emergence of a techno-pessimism, carried by personalities like Bill Gates, Elon Musk or Stephen Hawking. Two addictive series also explore the dark side of AI: on Netflix, the chilling Black Mirror depicts a programmed dehumanization of our society. And the disturbing Westworld, on HBO, plunges us into an artificial Wild West for idle billionaires, where humanoids created to satisfy our darkest impulses decide to revolt.

Inventing a man-machine relationship

“We are only at the beginning of this revolution,” explains Anna Ukhanova, researcher at Google's artificial intelligence laboratory in Zurich. “It is based on two major technological breakthroughs: the unprecedented computing power achieved by our computers, which brew billions of data in a few seconds. And deep learning, or deep learning, which mimics the functioning of our neurons and allows software to learn autonomously. By capturing our data, these software models our lives in algorithms and become able to predict our behavior. »

As disruptive as the appearance of the Internet and mobile phones, this revolution is spreading with astounding speed. Infancy AIs have already taken over our smartphones via digital assistants from Apple (Siri), Amazon (Alexa), Google (Google Assistant) or Microsoft (Cortana). For Laurence Devillers, researcher at the CNRS and author of Des robots et des hommes (ed. Plon), “the human-machine relationship is now shifting into the era of conversation. Chatting with your smartphone, your home, your car or your office will become commonplace”.

The arrival of AI in our lives raises major ethical and philosophical questions. "It is urgent to question the benefits as well as the harms of this technology", affirms Charles-Édouard Bouée, author of the Fall of the human empire (ed. Grasset, to be published on March 22, 2017). On the occasion of Digital Women's Day, March 9, 2017, in Paris, a meeting place for those who imagine tomorrow in connected mode, Madame Figaro explores the six fantasies crystallized by artificial intelligence.

Will we win the race of time?

No more to do lists! Serial entrepreneur and founder of Digital Women's Day, Delphine Remy-Boutang swears by Julie Desk, her virtual secretary: “She schedules my appointments and books my lunches. I save a lot of time! And I focus on what I love: creating. This software is a great success. "Since its birth in 2015, our algorithm Julie has processed a million emails and works with big names in the Cac 40", underlines its founder, Julien Hobeika. By relieving us of repetitive tasks, AI will free up precious time in our diaries. Tomorrow, there will be no need to drive: we will be able to read or watch DVDs in our unmanned cars. By 2030, these will represent 15 to 20% of vehicles, according to McKinsey. Fewer traffic jams, more fluid traffic… If free time should increase, it also risks being fragmented.

Beware of unwanted notifications sent by connected devices, which will compete for our attention. Director of Google's artificial intelligence laboratory, Emmanuel Mogenet thinks about framing the interventions of Google Assistant: “If he is proactive, he must not become a pain in the neck. My teams are currently working to detect the best time to intervene without disturbing. Eventually, he will also organize our holidays. And could even one day feed our Facebook profile in our absence. “We'll definitely have the gift of ubiquity,” enthuses Sandrine Cathelat, sociologist and director of studies at Netexplo. Via our avatars, we will be in several places at the same time. »

Will our jobs be more creative?

AI will disrupt whole swaths of the economy. And already threatens a long list of trades. In 2016, Foxconn, Apple's subcontractor, replaced 60,000 Chinese workers with cheaper and tireless robots. In Pittsburgh, Uber is testing driverless taxis, which it ultimately intends to generalize. Drivers, but also cashiers, receptionists, secretaries, accountants, bank employees… An Oxford study states that automation threatens 47% of jobs within twenty years in the United States. In France, it is estimated that between 2 and 3 million jobs are at risk. Intellectual professions, such as journalism or lawyers, could be replaced by AIs.

“The major challenge is to train those who are called 'technological unemployed', believes Michel Lévy-Provençal, founder of TEDxParis and L'Échappée Volée. In his start-up, Julien Hobeika has thus recruited “IA supervisors”. Delphine Remy-Boutang wants to be optimistic: “AI will create new jobs, less painful and more rewarding. We're going to focus on what we do best: creativity and emotion. AI will put people back at the heart of work. The philosopher Maël Renouard, author of Fragments of an infinite memory (ed. Grasset), also hopes so: “By confining ourselves to repetitive tasks, the industrial revolution in the 19th century transformed us into robots. Automation could give us back the humanity that was taken from us. »

Will we fall in love with artificial intelligence?

“As in the film Her, by Spike Jonze, where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with the voice of his smartphone, interpreted by Scarlett Johansson, we will focus on AI. They will simulate emotions and whisper words of love to us,” says Laurence Devillers. Algorithms are intruding on dating sites. The Hinge app has created a virtual assistant who flirts for us and lands us dates. On Tinder, the software called Tinder Box selects the profiles likely to please us, chat with our words then like for us. “These lovebots will be more and more intimate and personal, analyzes Sandrine Cathelat. If we are not careful, we risk losing our free will. »

Californian company Abyss Creations is expected to release human-looking sex robots this year. Artificial lovers who are patient, never jealous, protective and loving? "We could become addicted to it," says Laurence Devillers. But lovebots also risk becoming boring, because they will miss the essential: fantasy in love. »

Will it reduce the sphere of intimacy?

It's a reality: AI is already coming into our homes. By 2020, according to the Joshfire company, our interior will have nearly 500 connected objects, lamps, household appliances, screens or carpets. At the heart of this “smart home”, the Google Home or Amazon Echo speakers, sold in the United States, play the role of artificial butlers. Controlled by voice, they turn on the TV or launch your favorite playlist. In the future, they could draw us a bath after an exhausting day. The Miliboo smart mirror will scan our epidermis and recommend the best cream for our mood.

“Our “smart home” will pamper us, analyzes Sandrine Cathelat. Depending on our emotional state, it will create the olfactory, chromatic and luminous atmosphere that will soothe us. Welcome to the era of digital cocooning! On the other hand, when AI enters our rooms through connected walls, we will live in a world of absolute transparency. »

AI, the new Big Brother? We will no longer have any secrets for the machines. Our most intimate emotions will be sequenced into algorithms. How, then, can we safeguard an inviolable part of ourselves? "This raises the question of generalized surveillance and the reduction of an individual to an economic model," continues the sociologist. The more these AIs serve us, the more we will be inclined to forget what we are giving up: our personal data, our lives, who we are. »

Will it control our body?

It's a hypochondriac's dream. With the soaring rise of connected body sensors (watches, bracelets, etc.), we can constantly self-quantify, measure our blood sugar or red blood cell levels. "My connected watch tells me when I've been sitting too long and encourages me to get up to improve my lifestyle," says Michel Lévy-Provençal. The AI ​​will become a real well-being coach, capable of improving our sleep, balancing our diet, scanning our metabolism. Above all, AI is set to revolutionize the healthcare sector.

In the United States and England, several medical centers use Watson, IBM's supercomputer, for diagnostic assistance. For lung cancer, his detection rate is 90%, compared to 50% for a doctor. This techno-medicine is also coming into our homes. “There are connected diapers that analyze babies' urine and send notifications to parents' smartphones in the event of an anomaly. Our body will be subject to close medical supervision,” says Sandrine Cathelat. With its downside: through AI, mutuals will be able to assess our lifestyle to determine their rates. In La Silicolonisation du monde (ed. L'Échappée), the philosopher Éric Sadin warns of the advent of a society based on the integral commodification of life.

Will it take over our lives?

From advice to injunction, the border is fragile. Faced with the growing influence of AI on our daily lives, will we remain the masters of our destiny? In its laboratories, the Tesla brand is testing a smart car that takes us away from the wheel if it judges that we have drunk too much. And, in Germany, the connected Stir Kinetic Desk stands up by itself when we sit too long, and forces us to work standing up. “We will no longer be the leaders, worries Sandrine Cathelat. And by dint of being helped, we will no longer be able to act on our own. Without these digital crutches, we risk feeling smaller and more helpless. »

Weakened men because they are too assisted, facing AIs with growing power: "In 2045, AI will be a billion times more powerful than the meeting of all human brains", predicts Ray Kurzweil, chief engineer at Google. Will we then reach the point of singularity where this super AI will acquire consciousness and take power over humanity? where, as in the myth of the Golem or Frankenstein, the creature will turn against its creator? “AI, basically, is holding up a magnifying mirror to us,” concludes Charles-Édouard Bouée. It will exacerbate the worst and the best in us. It is up to us to prove our capacity for collective resilience. »

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