Navigating the Digital Society: Embracing Opportunities and Ethical Challenges of AI
Introduction
In recent years, artificial intelligence technology is constantly breaking through, and news about AI has emerged endlessly, each one causing a huge stir. AI technology has become an indispensable part of people’s lives, and it has a wide range of applications, involving academic research, programming, design, and other industries. However, the rapid development of artificial intelligence has also raised lots of public concerns about moral and ethical issues. The following will discuss the achievements brought about by AI and how we should view AI in the digital age.
The Developmental Opportunities Brought by AI
· AI + Autonomous Driving
Large Scale Artificial Intelligence (LSAI) are accelerating the development of autonomous driving technology. By equipping various sensors, cameras, and radars along with artificial intelligence algorithms, they enable the detection of objects, prediction of behavior, and planning of routes to achieve automatic control of vehicles. Currently, some cities in China such as Beijing, Chongqing, and Wuhan have started pilot operations of autonomous taxis. Autonomous driving technology has the potential to reduce accidents caused by fatigue, negligence, or mental stress. I believe that in the future, we will see autonomous driving cars on the roads, so even people without a driver’s license won’t have to worry about driving.
· AI + Healthcare
AI technology is gradually applied to the healthcare sector, which involves the application of multiple scenarios. For example, AI can provide personalized health management solutions through the analysis and prediction of patient data. It also can drive medical robots to perform operations such as surgery and rehabilitation task. Moreover, AI can find causes of disease and predict disease trends through the analysis and mining of a large amount of medical data. AI technology will help doctors diagnose conditions more efficiently and accurately and provide better medical services to patients.
The Ethical Risks Brought by AI
· Who is responsible for accidents caused by AI?
As AI is more widely applied in areas such as autonomous driving and healthcare in the future, if an AI’s erroneous judgement leads to traffic or medical accidents that result in harm to individuals, the question arises: who should bear the responsibility? This issue touches on a profound discussion of legal liability and ethical morals, and it is a complex topic that must be addressed and deeply discussed as part of the development of AI.
· Will Artificial Intelligence Lead to the Extinction of Humanity?
With the rapid development of AI, the topic of whether artificial intelligence will destroy humanity is being hotly debated. Numerous prominent figures in technology and science have issued warnings about the development of AI. In a BBC interview in 2014, Hawking warned: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” In addition, Elon Musk has warned that artificial intelligence is ‘’one of the biggest threats’’ to humanity. This is because, for the first time, humans may be overtaken by machines, and artificial intelligence may end human dominance. The Turing Test, proposed by Alan Turing, is a famous experiment to test whether a machine can think. Alarmingly, ChatGPT 4.0 has passed the Turing Test, and this generation of GPT now possesses the ability to understand human emotions and emotional intelligence. Consequently, an increasing number of people are concerned about the risk of AI becoming uncontrollable.
· AI Fraud
AI technology is being used by criminals for fraud, employing techniques like AI face-swapping and voice cloning. These criminals impersonate people close to the victims and conduct scams through online video calls. Such incidents are happening every day around the world. Recently, a shocking case of AI fraud occurred in Hong Kong, where a company was scammed out of 200 million Hong Kong dollars. The scammers used the company’s YouTube videos and media materials from other public channels, successfully imitated the appearance and voice of the CFO of the UK headquarters using the aforementioned technology, and successfully executed a fraud against the Hong Kong subsidiary. Not only have large corporations fallen victim to AI financial fraud, but countless small families have also been deeply affected by it.
· Unemployment
The development of AI has also raised fears of mass unemployment. In certain fields where highly repetitive and procedural work are involved, AI can now completely replace humans. Furthermore, as AI technology further develops, significant advances have been made in programming, art, and education. The scope of AI applications is already far greater than we realize. Therefore, many people are concerned that this tendency could lead to a significant risk of unemployment in the future. The impacts of unemployment are severe and widespread. When people lose their jobs, it affects their ability to survive since they live without a consistent source of income. This might disrupt societies, cause conflict, exacerbate economic decline, and increase violent crimes like robberies.
To Sum Up
AI offers more benefits than drawbacks overall. AI technology has improved living and opened up new avenues for development across a range of industries. Despite the existing moral and legal issues, its use in fraud, and the potential to cause unemployment, every new technology encounters its set of challenges during development. As citizens of the digital age, we should adopt a dialectical perspective on each technology, rather than rejecting a technology that could change our future simply because of its some flaws. To address the challenges brought by AI, this requires a collaborative effort from governments, corporations and individuals. Currently, EU and UK government has enacted AI-related laws. Additionally, technology giants like Microsoft are actively researching and developing technologies to counteract the potential risks associated with artificial intelligence. For us, we should utilize artificial intelligence in beneficial areas while avoiding its use as a tool for illegal and criminal activities.
Reflection
· Description and Feelings
This course is conducted online through Medium, and each module is equipped with detailed textual and video introductions, which greatly aid my learning and understanding. Additionally, the online learning mode lets me deeply feel the convenience of living in a digital society. Considering my busy study life, this online teaching method allows me to arrange my time more flexibly, so the course doesn’t put too much pressure on me. I thoroughly enjoy exploring the digital society in this course. As for the assessment method, it consists of three blogs. Accessing previous students’ blogs on Medium has been incredibly helpful for creating my own. Each round of feedback reveals weaknesses in my blogs, allowing me to further improve and produce even better blogs next time. In summary, this course offered a wealth of detailed resources, ensuring that I faced minimal obstacles throughout the learning process and even while writing blogs.
· Evaluation and Analysis
My first blog post achieved a decent score, yet it didn’t quite meet my expectations. Through the feedback received, I realized the need to incorporate more links into the article to enhance readers’ understanding, as well as to include videos for a deeper grasp of the topic. Additionally, as this was my initial foray into blog writing, traces of academic writing inevitably seeped into the piece. To address this, I immersed myself in reading numerous exemplary blogs by other authors, learning from their expressive styles. Consequently, I endeavored to modify my style in the new blogs, aiming for a tone that resonates more with the casual and interactive nature of blogging. Finally, based on the experience of the first two blog posts, I have laid a good foundation for the creation of the third post .
· Conclusion and Action Plan
The greatest benefit this course has brought to me is the recognition and understanding of various technologies emerging in the digital society, along with their impact on our lives. These technologies are not only transforming our daily routines but also profoundly influencing our way of living. My critical thinking abilities have improved tremendously as a result of this course, and I can view the world from a deeper and more comprehensive viewpoint as a result of this learning experience, which helps me to better comprehend the intricacies and dynamic changes we confront in this quickly changing digital era. Additionally, my future professional development now has a strong base thanks to this course. I aspire to become a successful marketer in the future, and the key to success is the ability to compose articles that captivate readers. This course taught me an entirely new writing style in contrast to traditional essay, the readers are more attracted to the casual tone of blogs in contrast to the formal tone of essays. Finally, I learned how to cite and use copyright-free videos and images, which is crucial for avoiding infringement and legal disputes in my future creations. I will persistently endeavour to improve my writing abilities and generate more captivating blog posts, despite the soon-to-be end of this course.
