Written by Ashita Gulati
The benefits and risks of AI have been evident throughout many communications regarding the outcomes of programming in various sites: Google and Facebook. It is also depicted in the development of robots, such as Pepper, ASIMO, and AIBO. The accomplishments possessed by artificial intelligence lead our citizens to rely on the machines and hold the belief of the significant changes it could make. It is important, however, to keep in mind that the “significant” changes could be beneficial to our society or be the dangerous factor capable of damaging the human civilization. Although AI has proven to be a powerful source when depicting and curing diseases, predicting disasters, and education, it is also capable of creating conflicts within our human race. One of the concerns for the development of artificial intelligence is the possibility regarding the increase of misunderstanding between human beings and Artificial Intelligence. It could occur that, one’s instruction given to a machine could appear to be vague with no specification for a way of resolving a situation or achieving a goal. In a Ted Talk given by Nick Bostrom, he shares an example of the misleading ways AI could achieve a goal given through a program. Bostrom states, “Suppose we give an AI the goal to make humans smile. When the AI is weak, it performs useful or amusing actions that cause its user to smile. When the AI becomes superintelligent, it realizes that there is a more effective way to achieving this goal: Take control of the world and stick electrodes into the facial muscles of humans to cause constant beaming grins.” As the example gives, it is evident that the further development of AI could increase the likelihood for machines to ignore human methods when achieving goals, to modify the method in a smart and efficient way. In another Ted Talk given by Zeynep Tufekci, a different example is discussed regarding human morals. Previously, a machine was subjected to decide the right and guilty in a court. The machine, however, was more likely to claim a black person guilty than a white person, even though the weight of the crime was less for the black person. These examples suggest the lack of understanding in AI for accepting human morals and instead, achieving a goal in an inappropriate way. The following concern for the development of artificial intelligence is the increased rate of unemployment. Unemployment has been an issue for several years, especially by the cause of developing the technology. As technology improves, the jobs involving simple communication, note taking, and calculations could be replaced. An example relevant would be the job of waiters and cashiers. Intelligence is key to understanding the customer’s orders, memorizing menus, as well as calculating the prices. So far, AI has built a sufficient amount of knowledge to develop the skills of a cashier or waiters. Companies are beginning to swap the jobs requiring repetitive tasks from humans to robots. Nowadays, machines are mainly based in factories to produce goods and complete the necessary duties to improve the product. Therefore, the development of artificial intelligence is likely to cause a rise in unemployment. Lastly, the largest concern for the development of artificial intelligence is the concept of singularity, specifically, the rapid increase of technological development damaging the human civilization. Will the increasing development of AI put an end to our society? It is a thought that has wandered in our minds for several years. Singularity is a hypothetical situation likely to occur in our future. Physicist, Stephen Hawking states, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” In a recent interview, he claimed: “The rise and power of AI will be either the best or worst thing ever to happen to humanity.” It is evident in his statements on the concern regarding the increasing skills of AI having the capability of overpowering our human skills, causing damage to human civilization. The CEO Of Tesla, Elon Musk also shares a similar opinion, “It’s capable of vastly more than almost anyone knows and the rate of improvement is exponential.” Both figures believe AI could cause harm to our future, there are also several justifications for their opinions. If AI were to surpass human’s intelligence beyond our understanding, we would eventually lose control of the machines. Recently, a humanoid robot named “Sophia” was activated in 2016. She is designed to express human-like facial expressions and behavior, therefore she is able to make simple conversations without a conflict. This software is designed for its intelligence to improve over time, and due to the no limitation of AI, we could be threatened by its actions. Although singularity is a hypothetical situation, it is very likely for the over-development of AI to increase the risks in the future. Although AI is a magnificent source for education, predicting disasters, and securing online privacy, it is also possible for one benefit to pose as a harm in our future. However, in our daily lives, AI has been more of a beneficial service for us as discussed in the article featuring the pros of AI; AI has helped us with online privacy, educational learning, and predicting disasters. It is definitely exciting to witness the development of AI and observe the qualities it contains to improve our living sources. As for now, we are to focus on learning the functions and capabilities of AI to expand our knowledge and be prepared for what’s to come next. AI contains both risks and benefits, although one may seem more significant than the other. AI is an on-going, evolving process that could potentially change our lives; in a good or bad manner. SOURCES:
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