Artificial intelligence (AI) is a comprehensive tool that allows us to more efficiently integrate information, analyze data, and use the resulting insights to improve decisions. Uncommon advancements in AI happen every day. For instance, robots and autonomous cars are becoming increasingly trending.
These top notch technological enhancements are driving a new era of economic progress, solving most of the world’s difficult problems and providing effective solutions to some of the most intense challenges in human history. AI has the ability to modify many sectors such as IT, telecommunications, transportation, digital traffic management, health care, education, criminal justice, defense, banking sector and agriculture.
As the use of these technologies advances into everyday use, it also raise concerns about possible negative impacts on a common person’s life and society. Some futurists guess that about half of human jobs will be taken over by automotives and robotics within the next few years. If the companies need lesser workers due to AI, what will happen to the employees who once held those jobs? Without sufficient safeguards or the incorporation of ethical considerations, the AI utopia can be quickly turn into dystopia.
As our life is changing more quickly in the presence of AI, there will be some positive and negative impacts on our lives as artificial intelligence carry on to transform the world we live in. As my opinions, I believe these changes will mostly beneficial but could be challenging as well. Here are some of the challenges that could be faced (and we should be thoughtful about how to address them now) as well as many of the positive impacts artificial intelligence will have on our society.
Challenges to be faced!
Artificial intelligence will surely cause our workforce to evolve. The alarming headlines emphasizes the loss of human jobs to machines, but the real challenge is for humans to find their passion with new responsibilities that require their uniquely human abilities. According to PwC, 7 million existing jobs will be replaced by AI in the UK from 2017-2037, on the other hand estimated 7.2 million jobs could be created. This uncertainty among the humans and the challenges to how some will make a living could be intense.
The dramatic change of artificial intelligence on our society will have wide-ranging economic, legal, political, defense and regulatory entanglements that we need to be discussing and preparing for. Considering who is guilty if an autonomous vehicle kills a pedestrian or how to control a global autonomous arms race are just a couple of examples of these challenges.
Will machines become super-intelligent and humans eventually lose control over them?
While there is debate around how likely this scenario will be we must know that there are always unexpected consequences whenever new technology is introduced. Those unintended outcomes of artificial intelligence will likely challenge us all.
Another issue is ensuring that AI doesn’t become so competent at doing the job it was designed to do. While the actual intent and purpose of the AI is to benefit humanity, if it chooses to go about achieving the desired goal in a destructive (yet efficient way) it would have negative impact on society. The AI algorithms must be developed to line up with the collective goals of humans.
Artificial intelligence interface is powered by data. As more and more data is collected about every single minute of every person’s life, our privacy gets compromised.
Positive Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Society
Artificial intelligence can dramatically improve the effectiveness of our workplaces and can augment the work which humans can do. When AI takes over continues or dangerous tasks, it is saving the human workforce to do difficult work. If humans are doing work that is more appealing for them, it would increase joy and job satisfaction.
With better monitoring and diagnostic capabilities, artificial intelligence can dramatically influence healthcare. By improving the operations of healthcare facilities and medical organisations, AI can reduce operating costs and save money. One estimate from McKinsey predicts big data could save medicine and pharma up to $100B annually. The true impact will be in the care of patients. Potential for personalised treatment plans and drug protocols as well as giving providers better access to information across medical facilities to help inform patient care will be life-changing.
Our society will gain countless hours of productivity with just the introduction of autonomous transportation and AI influencing our traffic congestion issues not to mention the other ways it will improve on-the-job productivity. Freed up from stressful commutes, humans will be able to spend their time in a variety of other ways.
The way we uncover criminal activity and solve crimes will be enhanced with artificial intelligence. Facial recognition technology is becoming just as common as fingerprints. The use of AI in the justice system also presents many opportunities to figure out how to effectively use the technology without crossing an individual’s privacy.
Unless you choose to live remotely and never plan to interact with the modern world, your life will be significantly impacted by artificial intelligence. While there will be many learning experiences and challenges to be faced as the technology rolls out into new applications, the expectation will be that artificial intelligence will generally have a more positive than negative impact on society.
The bottom line:
Nobody can predict what the future will bring, but AI may ultimately create more jobs than it displaces. By offering new tools for entrepreneurs, it may also create new lines of business that we can’t imagine now.It is quite definite that interacting with AI will soon become an common activity. AI can be used to tackle extremely difficult problems. These developments are creating essential economic, social and technological benefits.
Furthermore, AI poses the biggest ethical challenge we have yet to face. It has the strength to move civilization forward in very progressive ways. But the way AI systems are developed needs to be better understood due to the major implications. The possibilities of AI are endless. It’s future will be fortune by us, and it will influence the choices we make and the actions we take.
While this revolutionary technology has the ability to become the single most influential human innovation in history, we have no way of predicting how it will behave. But, with appropriate safeguards, we can ensure that AI systems are intentional, intelligent, and adaptable without compromising the important qualities that define humanity.
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