The pros and cons of artificial intelligence

People have been wary about the concept of artificial intelligence since it was first invented. There’s something uncanny about the idea of machines that are human-like but not quite human and Hollywood has capitalized on these fears.

But artificial intelligence is basically a tool, and isn’t inherently good or bad. It can only be used in good and bad ways. Here are some of the pros and cons of artificial intelligence.

Pros

• Humans get bored, machines don’t. That means that artificial intelligence is useful in that it can be programmed to do mundane tasks that humans don’t prefer.
• AI is faster to act and react to incoming information. AI is already being used for fraud detection, planning, and scheduling, and cyber-security.
• AI can process massive amounts of data quickly. Data that would take a human thousands of years to read through could be processed by AI in seconds.
• AI can’t make mistakes so long as they’re programmed correctly.
• AI can do risky jobs, like exploring space, without putting human lives in jeopardy.

Cons

• Job loss. There’s no way around it, as artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, jobs, especially those in certain fields, will be filled by AI.
• Though AI will create many new jobs and a lot of wealth, the disbursement of that wealth will be uneven. For instance, truck drivers, taxi drivers, and bus drivers will all be out of a job almost overnight when fully autonomous vehicles are legalized and become reasonably priced.
• AI can result in a concentration of power. The wealthy and powerful will be the ones most likely to have control over AI making them even more wealthy and powerful.
• Benign goals can be carried out perversely. Say artificial intelligence is tasked with solving a food shortage problem. AI would see nothing wrong with reducing the human population rather than increasing food supply if it was a simpler solution.

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Source: datamation.com/applications/pros-and-cons-of-artificial-intelligence.html