The Age of AI

Artificial Intelligence

    AI is a terrifying development for many facets of modern life. Just like during the development of automation, people are worried that they will lose their livelihoods to AI. Those who do menial labor, repetitive tasks, and even creative tasks fear AI will replace them. AI is also a threat to privacy in a world where cybersecurity is advancing faster than ever. In addition, AI is being trusted with ethical situations, such as taking on tasks that doctors do. 

Employment

    It is not actually an issue that AI is replacing those that do menial and repetitive tasks. Secretaries, some accountants, etc. could be replaced, freeing up that manpower to attend to more creative and fulfilling tasks. Unfortunately, in today’s world, that will likely not happen, but not because AI exists. The real issue is that many people in jobs that will be replaced by AI have no ability to move up to higher-skill, higher-fulfillment jobs like this. 

Another issue is that AI discriminates. AI is modeled to have human-like behavior, and in general, human behavior can be sexist. Many menial jobs like clerk, secretary, and other clerical support workers would be replaced by AI, disproportionately affecting women. AI is historically also biased against people of color, in one instance showing racial bias when put in charge of job recruiting. 

Ethics

    My dislike of self-driving AI-powered cars is not founded in untrust of AI technologies to drive well. In the situation where an ethical decision has to be made, I would rather the decision be made by me rather than a machine. In a hypothetical situation, where one decision could be someone’s life, I would like to have responsibility for myself instead of passing it to an algorithm.

Other ethical considerations that must be made are ones that the person using AI must think about. People must realize that all AI currently in use are not truly deep-learning AI (ie. AI that learns by itself, like a human), but many treat it that way. Today’s AI is closer to a very complex algorithm than an actual mind that will beat humans. 

Privacy

Privacy is also a concern in the age of AI. AI is getting extremely good at surveillance and data mining, as well as analyzing the data being collected. Google’s security especially is concerning, as Google incorporates AI into the search engine now. The AI gathers data from users to make a more personalized experience, at the cost of the user’s search history data. When a person has all of someone’s search history and habits, this is equivalent to a picture of the person. 

One issue that very much concerns me is tracking women’s menstrual cycles. Many apps sell the data from their users to third parties, and AI can analyze the data and make assumptions based on this. During a post-Roe v. Wade world, this is especially concerning. Data like when people have periods, miscarriages, or abortions is not something that anyone but the person and their provider should know. 

The Internet of Things also is an invasion of privacy. The IoT refers to a world where all appliances are “smart”, learning things about the user to make their daily lives more comfortable. However, they are trading comfort for their information, as this gives a snapshot of someone’s complete daily habits.