The Impact of Artificial Intelligence Essay Example

The world as once known has drastically changed in the past 30 years. From self-driving cars to seemingly mind-reading technology, artificial intelligence has manifested itself into our lives. It begins to raise the question of  “What else can be done?”. Once distant dreams of an automated world are now presenting themselves to become society's reality. Many argue that the mass manufacturing of Artificial Intelligence may lead to our doom, but individuals are beginning to raise the point that this may be humanity's salvation. 

With Artificial Intelligence becoming more prominent in the world, engineers are producing the laborers of the future with a purpose. This purpose is the lack of human error and the sparing of human lives. If programmed correctly, artificial intelligence can complete its task with astounding speed and accuracy. If engineers continue to design AI correctly, life-threatening situations would plummet because high-risk conditions would stand as a favorable factor to use AI over humans. For example, in circumstances such as bomb threats, sending in a robot sent in to disarm explosives rather than an individual would be an ultimate sense of relief, with no real loss occurring if the situation were to go wrong. Since machines are unable to grasp the pressure and intensity that is associated with life-or-death, AI will allow society to begin pushing the depths of what ‘danger’ truly is.

One area of concern would be cost, due to fees from designing, planning, construction, etc. The construction of one machine can set costs starting at $100,000 and unfortunately, there is no guarantee of how well they will perform when put to work. If the construction of AI were to fail, it would be a waste of money that could have been spent on foolproof production. But like all things in life; one must be able to learn from their mistakes. It would be unseemly and almost unethical to push away an idea that could benefit so many due to simple trial and error. 

Additionally, Artificial Intelligence can stand as a great replacement for humans in terms of the workforce and labor roles. Presenting machines with the opportunity to substitute humans in their jobs will allow physically exhausting roles such as construction and manufacturing to be completed in a fraction of the time, with once lengthy tasks being accomplished within mere hours rather than weeks. While the new use of AI may begin to raise questions from naysayers for the outcome of human laborers, the possibility of machines taking over the labor force would have to be a condition that society has to accept. If machines were to start taking jobs from the original laborers, there would be mass amounts of people unable to find a new career. However, the use of AI workers could ultimately lead to an economic boom. “The reduced cost makes it easier for these companies to snap up more market share in their industry because they can offer higher quality products at the same price or keep the same quality but offer lower prices than the competition.” (Builtin) With manufacturing being done at record speeds, there would be an exponential growth in production. Soon society will have workers that will not need breaks and produce excellent results.

If AI were to take every job away from humans, this could be seen as a global reset. Vast amounts of people would have time to relax, and these times could be compared to the beginning of the pandemic where the world stopped without warning. Families would be able to bond, individuals could spend time with themselves, and the enjoyment of life would no longer be limited to the weekend. With many being given the time to think, it wouldn’t be unlikely to consider society having another golden era. The possibilities of art and knowledge being appreciated would be comparable to the Renaissance with creations and inventions never before dreamed of beginning to appear.

Many fail to realize that Artificial Intelligence is much more than just machines. It is so ingrained into everyday life to the point where many of us tend to overlook it. For example, AI stands as the reasoning behind on how many individuals have social media accounts such as Instagram and Facebook customized to their liking. Each user has a unique set of interests shown on their social media feeds to give the best experience. With each click of a button, Artificial Intelligence tracks the users’ every move and continues to update itself in a way that the user will hopefully be able to find more entertaining. AI is constantly being programmed to track location and it’s no coincidence that businesses that people frequent in their life just so happen to appear on their Facebook feed “randomly”. Data patterns of consumers tailors itself to the modern shopping experience and helps major corporations track the categories of people who purchase from them. Towards Data Science writes, “In-fact according to a survey done by Tractica, AI in eCommerce is booming at such a pace that the revenue is expected to reach $36.8 Billion worldwide by 2025.”  (Martin) Without the use of Artificial Intelligence, it would be impossible to track the internet trail that millions leave on a daily basis. 

The last and most outlandish, area of concern would be the takeover of machines. “Stephen Hawking warned that “AI could develop a will of its own, a will that is in conflict with ours and which could destroy us.”(Chang)  It would be bold to say that AI will eventually become more intelligent than mankind. This is because humans power the machines, so one could say that all AI will ever know and be capable of is solely based on human knowledge. Humans are the creators of artificial intelligence, so a future where AI can overtake anything is close to none. It is not a foolproof plan for jobs and many have to realize that it is capable of error and will be decades before society sees the transition of AI workers. There is an extensive list of pros and cons that society can argue about, but it all relies on the gamble of who is going to pay the price.