Research Essay Example about Artificial Intelligence

Throughout the late 20th and current 21st century, the concept and use of artificial intelligence have been thrown around a lot by both engineers, researchers, and the general public alike. It’s become a massive topic of discussion and a potential gold mine for big tech industries going forward. However, considering how often people talk about AI, there tends to be little understanding of it and the countless other developments and issues that exist within it. In the 1990s, John McCarthy, best known as the Father of Artificial Intelligence, described AI as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines” (Cioffi, et al). This is AI in its simplest form. It's the creation of machines with their level of intellect and analytic ability created at the hands of engineers and scientists. Presently, it’s also a rapidly growing field that impacts significant aspects of major developed nations as well as the lifestyle of the average consumer. Artificial Intelligence has evolved from a slowly growing industrial concept to a major element in modern life. It has arguably expanded to the point that it operates more as an umbrella term for other functions used such as machine learning, deep learning, and neural networking. It’s crucial to understand the innumerable ways that AI is expanding, how this impacts industries and society, and what it may look like in the future. These, among other topics, must be analyzed and discussed to properly understand artificial intelligence and its impacts along with its advancements. 

Current Use

AI’s rapid expansion has led to a variety of uses that range from major industrial developments to individual productivity. Having been utilized in countless ways, it has revolutionized every area that it’s been applied including medical science, agriculture, manufacturing, and other fields. From the personal use of programs such as SIRI, Cortana, and Alexa contributing to individual productivity to IBM computing systems that are developing quantum algorithms in computer engineering and major aspects of quantum computing, AI influences these fields and everything in between. Artificial Intelligence is meant to fulfill the role of intelligent machines that think rationally or machines that match human intellect without human limits. By taking on this role, it is typically found in areas that require machines with the ability to constantly adapt and think for themselves in any situation. 

Security Aspects

The beauty of artificial intelligence dominantly lies in its ability to take in and process information in a way that is more advanced than any machine that’s been seen before. It goes beyond processing information but also includes the ability to actively generate and think through data in a way that resembles human intellect without the disadvantages of the human mind. However, this allows certain systems to be easily compromised. While machines programmed with modern AI excel in thinking analytically about relevant information and forming innovative uses with it, they are also susceptible to being fed misinformation that turns the productivity of the AI’s function against the user. This creates a security risk on both international and domestic scales. This is presented particularly in AI surveillance systems, which have proven to be distinctly susceptible to corruption and have become a detriment to cybersecurity by creating new methods for hackers to infiltrate personal and industrial devices. The idea of guaranteed privacy is sacrificed when artificial intelligence is a factor in the machines being used. 

Additionally, AI gives sizable amounts of power to major industries such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, and IBM. This is regarding the engineering of major systems and products, determining who can use certain products, and the amount of information that these machines as well as the manufacturers are allowed to have. This is a common thread within the unethical use of artificial intelligence as well as in other areas surrounding IT. Ultimately, consumers are often unaware of the amount of information and control that these companies have over their data as well as their devices. If a consumer of a product isn’t aware of the total amount of information that a company is withholding or the potential of them doing so, they won’t These industries take advantage of that when it comes to both developing and selling their products which put countless at risk. The idea of major security breaches among massive tech producers is not unusual or unheard of. In 2019, 250 million customer records were exposed online in what was considered a massive, and arguably preventable, data leak (Winder). Data breaches aren’t a thing of the past, they are more frequent and active than before supported by a lack of public understanding of the details and risks of using mainstream produced AI systems. All of this has created an imbalance of power between the consumer and producer that puts both at risk if commonly used AI systems are compromised. 

Ethical and Social Implications

The use of artificial intelligence is disproportionate, and its benefits end up being so as well. It has created a distinct divide between the lower and upper economic classes. This is shown in the manufacturing industry, where AI has helped machines adapt to complete small yet complicated procedures without the use of manual labor. While this is beneficial to manufacturers and consumers, it has been detrimental to the workforce and has led to countless jobs and careers becoming obsolete. This has proven to be a trend in fields like industrial manufacturing, where jobs typically completed by employees are taken over by intelligent machines. The working class has taken a devastating hit by this movement and has caused countless people to go jobless without any means of learning to operate these machines. While the upper-middle and upper class have the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of increased product quality and distribution, the lower economic classes are robbed of potential careers and financial security. This is one of the countless different ways that the unethical use of AI contributes to the division of economic and racial classes with no means to repair the unequal distribution of benefits.

Future Use

Artificial intelligence has a long list of capabilities that have gone unexplored. However, there are great efforts to explore and utilize its many possibilities. Engineers are working towards having it closely resemble the intricacies of human intelligence and creativity. In addition to this, there is work to have AI understand and resemble human emotion and wisdom to an extent in certain fields. This is a development that is focused specifically on the medical field to improve the bedside manner within each device’s interactions with a patient during treatment. This is also being developed for machines within different fields, especially where machines engage in direct and regular interactions with the people working alongside them. 

Developers hope to create AI with mastered traits of “reason, logic, task performance, and creativity”(Anderson, et al.). The intent in doing so lies in the desire for “maximum efficiency” (Thurston, Anderson) in as many areas as possible. AI systems are expected to take on significant roles in economics, transportation, environmental protection, and military and police forces among countless other fields. Ultimately, over the next decade 

All in all, artificial intelligence actively shaping the modern world and has taken its place in almost every field on both a national and international scale. It has  proven to have grown exponentially from its invention in 1956 to its presence in the modern-day, where it takes an extremely significant presence.