AI: Is It a Boon or Bane to Society?
Do you use social media like Twitter and Instagram? Do you use any of the products that Google has created? Do you use services like online shopping and online music listening? I’m pretty sure you do. It can be safe to say that almost everyone has an affirmative answer to at least one, if not all the questions from above. Whether you performed a Google search or scrolled through your Twitter timeline, you have experienced some form of interaction with AI.
In today’s modern day society, technology is transforming the way we live our everyday lives. It is influencing the way we do our day-to-day activities to such an extent, where it now seems impossible to function without it. From the more widely used forms of technology like cell phones and laptops to the more intricate forms like machine learning and cyber security, technology is permeating society from all around. One of its most advanced forms has an incredible capacity to revolutionize the world by impacting every single field of study. This technological breakthrough is called AI.
According to Built In, Inc. (2019) Artificial Intelligence is a “Wide-ranging branch of computer science concerned with building smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence.”
Over the last two years in my high school career, I have found AI to be quite powerful in 2 major industries. One of them being healthcare, and the other being manufacturing. These industries are being altered to such a degree where all its tasks are being done by AI. Artificial Intelligence is definitely taking over, but can that always be considered and viewed as a good change?
Healthcare:
Healthcare is an industry which is being shaped by AI every second. AI has allowed us to make substantial progress in areas where we were not as effective and efficient as we could have been with the help of Artificial Intelligence. The integration of AI in healthcare has enabled tremendous amounts of growth in capturing and detecting deadly diseases. One example of this is with genetic caused diseases like cancer. AI has helped diagnose and predict colorectal cancer. In a Japanese AI study, an artificial intelligence program was able to identify and detect colorectal cancer before the benign tumors became cancerous and caused damage (International Business Times, 2017).
According to the study, the program compared magnified microscopic images of a colorectal polyp to thousands of images of non cancerous and cancerous cells. Through this AI-assisted system, doctors were able to obtain an 86% accuracy rate which is very remarkable for an introductory program. With a little more time and research, AI has the potential to outperform humans entirely.
Manufacturing:
A robot is a great example of how beneficial AI can be. In a wide range of work fields, AI has changed the way we go about executing tasks that are either too difficult, repetitive, or those that use too many resources. Robots are a popular application of AI which use automation to efficiently perform these types of tasks at a higher degree of precision than humans. Because robots are more efficient in the workplace, they create more savings in the key aspects of operations like time and money.
Transnational consumer goods company, Unilever uses virtual factories through the help of AI to tune up their supply chain (Smith). The market giant uses AI to retrieve data from all of its sensor-equipped machines to create digital models that track physical conditions of the equipment. These digital models utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to help the company analyze and detect where they need to improve their operations or resolve an issue in their machinery.
Unilever reports the benefits they saw in one of their soap facilities in Brazil when they created a digital twin for the site.
AI enabled them to save about $2.8 million at that site and obtain a 2% increase in productivity.
Is AI a Bane?
Can AI be so good that it does not have any drawbacks? The short answer to this question is “No.” There can’t be an introduction in society that does not negatively impact its surroundings. Just like everything else, even Artificial Intelligence has many negative outcomes. Whether they are to us, humans, or to other things, AI does indeed come with some costs.
The adoption of AI is often characterized as a terrible disaster to the human workforce. AI in the form of robots or other automated programs displace thousands of jobs in multiple different work-fields. Due to their efficiency and effectiveness in performing the same human-like tasks, they are being implemented by a large number of companies.
Since data is the main feedstock of AI, it can easily be hacked which creates a huge concern for privacy. Fearn (2017) points out some of the questions people have around privacy “How do we know that AI systems aren’t tracking us and that companies are using this data inappropriately? Can we ever be sure AI is truly safe?” As more people start to hop on the new technological wave and start using more of the “smart” devices, more data will be collected resulting in a larger invasion of privacy.
It turns out that IoT devices are a big contributor to this ongoing privacy issue. The main reason for this is because of their increasingly strong ability to connect to one another and create a shared network of devices. Although this may be very convenient for the human user, it is very prone to cyber attacks. Because there are several devices sharing a network, a hacker can easily target the most vulnerable device and gain control of the rest. Sokal (2015) explained how hackers could use closely connected IoT devices to change them into botnets. Through this, your privacy is lost within seconds as hackers can save, destroy, and share your personal data.
So, these were just some of the major effects, positive and negative, of AI. There are obviously more benefits and drawbacks of AI, but the main focus at this point in society, is to resolve the issues that AI brings along.
Solution = AI + Humans:
The solution to a lot of AI problems is togetherness. Being together is always better than being alone and this fact applies to AI as well. Instead of just having AI make its way into and take over all the major industries, keeping humans in these areas is also crucial. For example, mostly all of the issues that AI encounters like hacks, malfunctions, and transparency can be resolved with the help of humans. If AI is assisted by humans, every task can be executed with a better efficiency leading to a better output. Whether it be the areas where human input is essential or those where AI can be more effective, working together is the solution in all cases. Having a helping hand in the processes in any work field does not hurt. AI should work alongside humans.
- Hacks: Humans can provide real-time security, supervision, and solutions
- Malfunctions: Humans can monitor and perfect an AI application through their expertise
- Job Displacement: Humans can work with AI to produce finer results
