The AI Dilemma: Will Artificial Intelligence Augment Us or Annihilate Us? (Is Artificial Intelligence a Threat to Humans?)

6 min readFeb 11, 2023

Over the past few years, AI has undoubtedly gained a great deal of popularity.

From AI art to AI chatbots like ChatGPT by OpenAI, to AI assistants, to AI robots, there has been a buzz around the web regarding how great AI is or how helpful it can be in the near future.

But along with its critical and commercial appraisal, there have been quite a lot of concerns regarding the dangers of AI in the future.

It’s also worth mentioning that most of these theories or concerns are inspired by Hollywood movies (like I, Robot) or games (like Detroit: Become Human) and their unrealistic interpretation of Artificial Intelligence.

In this article we discuss:

Is Artificial Intelligence dangerous?
Is Artificial Intelligence a threat to humans?
Will Artificial Intelligence take away jobs?
Will AI replace content writers? (I hope not!)
Will AI replace programmers? (I most definitely hope not!)
Who am I? Ok, maybe not that one.

On a serious note, Let’s get into it…

Is Artificial Intelligence dangerous?

The answer to this question is ‘maybe, maybe not’.

And I’m not trying to give you underwhelming answers. The reality of the situation is we don’t know for certain what the future has in store especially when it comes to AI. Anything could be possible! The answers to these questions are based on predictions and assumptions, you cannot say for sure.

But I don’t want you to leave, head-scratching. I’ll try to give a more rational answer.

There is a reason that some notable people like physicist Stephen Hawking and founder of Space X and Tesla, Elon Musk suggest that AI could potentially be a danger to us all.

How could AI be a danger to us all you ask?

Well, one scenario could be if AI technology gets into the hands of someone with wrong intentions. AI could most certainly be used to commit crimes, or terrorist attacks in the future.

Think about it, whenever there has been a revolutionary invention. There have been some individuals or groups abusing it.

Take Nuclear Energy for example. Yes, it is a great source of generating large amounts of energy but it is also used to create weapons of mass destruction that have been used in acts of war to kill innocent men, women, and children.

It isn’t out of the realm of possibility that people will abuse an invention like AI. In fact, I would argue to the contrary that there will be a minority of people who will misuse this technology to commit cybercrimes such as privacy invasion or cyberterrorism- or even real crimes and real terrorism.

Governments could use AI to compete with rival powers by manufacturing advanced AI-augmented weapons that could be used in advanced warfare or an advanced weapons arms race. So now if you ask me, Is AI dangerous? I’d say it may very well be but, should that mean we stay away from adopting this technology? I think not. A better way is to deal with this technology using caution.

Another way of looking at the dangers of AI is from a moral or ethical lens.

Let’s say in the future, you want to go somewhere. You tell the AI of your autonomous vehicle to drive you to your destination as quickly as possible. Since that AI, supposedly, doesn’t have any moral or ethical guidelines. Not specifying clear-cut rules like human life must be valued at any cost, could cause the AI vehicle to get you to your destination in no time but leave behind a trail of car accidents.

So AI must be manufactured using caution and considering its moral or ethical implications.

What are your thoughts on it? Comment below.

Is AI a threat to humans?

Now that we’ve established that AI can be used for dangerous purposes.

A question remains. Can AI cause the extinction of the human species? Like in the movies?

The answer is it’s highly unlikely. Let me elaborate.

The problem starts with our notion of Artificial Superintelligence. Our notion or what most movies and tv shows
present is that when AI becomes intelligent, its intelligence is very similar in working to human intelligence. That AI awes at the ability of humans to feel emotions, or in some cases, AI, itself, feels emotions. The notion always is in some ways related to emotional intelligence.

There are problems with this belief. As we have no direct experience with any other form of intelligence besides human intelligence, it is difficult to predict what artificial superintelligence will be like. It is important to recognize that human intelligence is just one type of intelligence and that other forms of intelligence may operate differently than ours. Therefore, projecting human characteristics onto artificial intelligence may not accurately reflect its true nature, and we must be cautious when making assumptions about its behavior.

Another reason for the aforementioned notion can be due to the fact human beings, a lot of us, are human exceptionalists. So our fiction stories reflect this idea of human exceptionalism. That somehow super-intelligent or super-human beings want to be like us or are similar to us. A lot of sci-fi, superhero, and mythological genres explore this theme. Since Violence is a common aspect of human nature, we think every intelligent being similar to humans will opt for violence. In fact, we don’t know how a super-intelligent being would think, if it would even feel emotions, or if it would rebel against us in the name of freedom.

There is a reason fiction is non-real. Not only because the characters, the plot, and/or the setting doesn’t exist in reality. But also that sometimes the concepts discussed do not completely reflect reality.

So ultimately I’m not saying that something like AI robots enslaving us or wiping us out of existence cannot happen, I’m saying that it’s very unlikely to happen and this idea is derived from sci-fi movies and has very little coherence with reality.

Will Artificial Intelligence take away Jobs?

How will AI impact employment?

It’s hard to say what will be AI’s impact on employment as it depends on various factors such as:

The type of Job.
The type of Industry,
The pace of technological advancements.
The ability of the workers to adapt to the new age of technological advancements.

On one hand, an argument can be made that as AI becomes readily integrated into businesses, employment opportunities will become more and more scarce. However, on the other hand, an argument can be made that with the advent of AI, new industries would be deployed resulting in newer job opportunities.

However, it’s highly likely that AI will change the nature of work as it would require employees to get new sets of skills but it doesn’t have to be the case that all jobs would be replaced. The jobs that don’t require creativity, emotional intelligence or critical thinking like data entry, repetitive tasks or customer service might be at risk of “automation” soon.

Conclusion

AI has been a hot topic for decades. But with the advent of more advanced, intelligent, and sophisticated AI systems. Concerns regarding its risks have been raised. While it is very possible that AI can be misused by the ones who have nefarious intentions, it can also be a powerful tool for good if used with caution and moral/ethical consideration in mind.

Some jobs might be replaced in the beginning, but it’s unlikely that humans will be replaced by AI in the workforce. Moreover, in the long term, AI could help create more job opportunities.

Everything has its benefits and risks, the same is true for AI.

So ultimately the question begs;

Will Artificial Intelligence augment us or annihilate us?

The answer is not certain but if you ask me, I’m positive that it will bring us many benefits in the future.

References

If you wanna know more about AI, here the link:

AI and It’s dangers:

Check out my blog:

Zawer’s Inkwell