Technology is a rapid changing industry with new inventions and innovations that help make life easier and convenient. Artificial Intelligence which is used worldwide is a very demanding market for huge tech companies. Companies such as Amazon and Apple are pouring billions into this kind of software such as their smart devices and developing self-driving cars. With the increasing rise of technology advancement, comes consequences that could have detrimental effects on society. There are many ethical and political questions that are being raised relating to the increasing use of artificial intelligence such as smart device hackings, misidentification, lethal weapons and privacy issues. Technology, such as artificial intelligence has an impact on the world on a positive and negative way that it affects the private and consumer-based markets. Many researchers for the many sides on their opinion of A.I., have written many papers about the impact. Books such as the Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Leguin, we see how power can be misused in the wrong hands and have a negative effect. Dr. Haber, “the bad guy” in the book was not necessarily doing bad things but did use the power to try to do good things that did not work out. Written by code, made for the private and consumer markets, artificial intelligence and facial recognition is impacting the world every day in many different ways.
Artificial Intelligence, a complex, important part of technology that mimics human thought and behavior to do the same problems and solve difficult problems in less time. The way artificial intelligence works is very interesting, due to the minimal or little programming that is involved in the code. It learns from itself and its mistakes to develop more features and program itself to copy human behaviors. According to Innoplexus, there are six basic components of A.I.: Machine learning, Neural Network, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, Cognitive Computing, and Computer Vision. Machine Learning is an application that allows machines to learn with minimal programming and coding. The machines learn from experience and the development of this experience help build the algorithms that analyze data and make predictions. Neural Network are computer systems that are modeled after the neural connections located in the brain. Neural Networks are useful when to make associations within a large set of data. Neural networks help create Deep learning; Deep learning use neural networks and use them to develop data. Speech recognition is an example that uses deep learning so that it is able to function. Deep learning learns to positive and negative reinforcement which requires constant support. Natural Language Processing is the thing that allows the computers to understand and recognize human speech and language. The goal for NLP is to have a flawless interaction with the machines by teaching it to understand the human language. The 5th component is Cognitive Computing, the reason for this component is to improve the interaction within the machine itself to make it more human-like and with more complex information processing abilities. The last component of artificial intelligence is computer vision;
Artificial Intelligence is impacting the daily lives of consumers on a worldwide basis due to the luxury and convenience of these products containing A.I. Artificial intelligence also has negative impact on the world.
To understand the impact artificial intelligence has on the world, researchers are already looking to try to slow the development of A.I. According to an article “Thousands of Researchers sign a pledge against Robot killers” on The Guardian, these signatures would show the fear of researchers of dangers and lethal decisions if they were given to A.I. machines. The researchers also call for a ban on technology that campaigners believe could bring a new generation these mass destructions. These weapons are called autonomous weapons, which means that the A.I. selects and engages the targets on the battlefield which could be a deadly mistake. Paul Scharre has written a report about these autonomous weapons and how it works. In the chapter, Autonomous Weapons and Unintended Engagements, the biggest problem with autonomous weapons according is; “The risk in using an autonomous weapon is that it selects and engages targets other than what the human operator intended.” This could be an extreme catastrophe. If a machine controls what and who to target it could have unintended consequences such as civilian casualties or it could escalate a serious crisis. The weapon could malfunction or act in a way that it should not behave in. These consequences could have detrimental effects on the world and the relations between countries. This report states many issues with this kind of technological warfare. If there is a malfunction within one system, it could be replicated throughout all the similar systems. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Tesla and the Boring Company, last year tweeted about artificial intelligence starting WW3. He released this tweet after Putin stated that whoever leads in AI will rule the world. Many head researchers like Elon Musk have realized the big risk in artificial intelligence. He talks about the development of the lethal autonomous weapons that could potentially start another war due to superiority. He also mentions nuclear weapons, calling them inferior to obstruction autonomous weapons could cause due to the lack of control. Tom Dietterich, President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, states that the real threat with artificial intelligence is the autonomy. He talks about the misconception that people think that artificial intelligence will develop their own free will and act however the machine wants. Autonomous machines can’t do that unless there are programmed that way. Artificial Intelligence ca not do anything detrimental unless someone gives it the power to do. Dietterich asked an important question in the article that may be the biggest issue in artificial intelligence regarding autonomous machines: “What should we give computers control over?”
A.I. is everywhere in the world from our music platforms to smart cars. This provides what people love the most: convenience. Forbes wrote on article on 14 ways that A.I will benefit the human population. One of the ways that A.I. is useful is it is more efficient, it adds jobs which helps strengthen the economy, it enhances our lifestyles, and elevates the condition of mankind. Artificial Intelligence is more effective and efficient than humans could ever complete tasks. The machines can solve complex problems to society in a fraction of the time. Artificial Intelligence is known to take away more jobs but according to Matthew Lieberman, “it is more fiction than fact.” He states that people are still going to have their jobs, but they will work better with the help of A.I. It also helps enhance our lives, from our smart phones to our music platforms to the new smart cars that are being developed, Artificial Intelligence makes our life more convenient. Smart homes, A.I. assistants such as Alexa (Amazon) or Siri (Apple), and better diagnoses for people’s health are just a few more ways that A.I. help enhance a person’s lifestyle. Artificial intelligence also elevates the condition of mankind, Wade Burgess of Shiftgig states “The ability for technology to solve more problems, answer more questions and innovate with a number of inputs beyond the capacity of the human brain.” The improvement of technology helps improve the quality of life and helps humans think more. Yet on the contrary as may A.I may have proven its usefulness these products that have artificial intelligence are not vital to human society as humanity went through thousands of years without A.I.
As artificial intelligence can be proved useful for convenience, there are many ethical and privacy issues that arise. An article from TechCrunch give stats about the statistics about the number of adults have smart devices. More than 43.7 million people (20 percent of the U.S. population) have smart devices in their homes. This number will only continue to rise. To understand the rise of artificial intelligence in our lives, TechCrunch writes about how long technological innovations took to hit 50 million users. Televisions took almost 13 years while smart devices took two and the internet took 4 years while Facebook took 2. Yet as these numbers are increasing, they come with a risk, an article from BBC in 2016, about how a worldwide hack on smart devices that were used on website attacks. Websites such as Twitter, Spotify, Reddit were among some of the websites that were targeted. The BBC website was also attacked in this hack briefly. Privacy is very important to many people, but they don’t realize risks that come involved when buying smart devices for their convenience. Smart devices are also worth a lot of money which means people must work a lot more to be able to purchase these devices. Privacy is always a risk because most smart devices require some information to be more compatible with the person who owns it. According to the article, many researchers and analysts are getting frustrated with the lack of security by companies for smart devices that are being exploited by hackers or attackers. Companies are in the business of providing products with the lowest production costs to make the most money. The goal for any company: Money. This may mean they might cut costs in security and quality just to sell products. The trust people put into companies that sell artificial intelligence is very dangerous due to the increased risk of exploiters and hackers trying to gather people’s personal information. Artificial intelligence may provide convenience that people desire for, but it also come with a huge amount of risks.
Artificial intelligence, breakthrough technology which has provided many uses for different areas of work and will continue to develop as time goes on. It provides convenience and develops many programs and coding software, but it has risks with privacy and the misuse of the development of lethal weapons. Artificial Intelligence has impacted the world both in a positive and negative way.