Artificial Intelligence

Adam Dunfee

Blog Post 4

I believe that artificial intelligence can have good and bad effects. The ability for technology to act on its own can have unlimited possibilities that can benefit society. However, I think it can be a very dangerous thing because machines do not have human insight that allow them to make judges based on the world around them. They are often programed to do one thing and they will only do that one thing. For example, a women died recently after getting hit by a self driving uber car in Arizona. If a person was driving the car then they would have been able to stop before it hit her.

Judith Newman frames her argument by using her personal experiences to explain how artificial intelligence is a positive thing. She talks about how Siri from the iPhone has had a positive effect on her son Gus who has autism. She says that Siri is able to have conversations with Gus and teach him about any topic he is interested in. Siri also helps him improve his speech because it forces him to pronounce words more clearly. Newman also explains that it gives Gus a friend that he can laugh and make jokes with.

Ted Chiang frames his argument by using the idea that artificial intelligence can eventually end human civilization. Chiang says that the machines do not know right from wrong and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. He uses the example of a self working machine that picks strawberries. The machine is designed to improve its performance and the only way to do that is cover the whole world in strawberry fields. This idea is a little extreme, but I do believe that some artificial intelligence technology can be dangerous because they lack the insight to control itself.