What is the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Society?

Roughly speaking, the people in the second group tend to be the elderly and/or uninformed among us and the people from the first group are the ones who are more enthusiastic and tech-savvy, ideally millennials and people from Gen Z.

So who's whose right between both of these groups? How do we decide if artificial intelligence is the next big thing or something we should try to avoid at all costs? Well, the answer to that is a little complicated because artificial intelligence isn't something that "will happen" but something that already exists and is influencing our everyday lives as we speak.

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Let's first define artificial intelligence for the purpose of simplicity and ease of understanding as we go along this article. Artificial intelligence or AI can have many definitions, but the one that we found to be the most accurate was this one:

"Artificial Intelligence is a simulated form of intelligence found in machines that is designed to mimic natural intelligence as such found in humans for the purpose of performing tasks as an extension to human abilities by learning about its environment and opting for problem-solving skills."

Sounds cool, right? We think so too. A good example of artificial intelligence in the today's world would be the voice assistant that you use in your smartphone i.e. Google's Google assistant or Apple's Siri.

Both of those virtual assistants are essentially AI-based software technologies designed for your convenience that help you perform tasks via your smartphone faster and much more efficiently through the method of voice recognition and/or touch.

Another great example would be the social media apps you use like Instagram or Snapchat or Facebook. All of these social platforms are basically AI-based softwares that help you bring and send information.

For instance, when you open the camera within the Instagram app and pick a filter, Instagram's artificially intelligent algorithm scans your face and optimizes each filter to fit perfectly according to the dimensions of your face.

Though this might not sound that impressive to you, but that is, in fact, AI at work. Albeit, it's a really diluted version of it since progress in the field of AI is still in its early stages. Things start to get really crazy when you zoom out look at the big picture, though.

How AI influences modern human society

Even if you are someone who is dismissive of the concept of AI, one thing is for sure: AI is inevitable. It is going to be worked on and exploited just like all the other technologies that humans have built for far. This will be done for the same reason humans do anything: we are expansionists by nature. We like novelty and figuring out new ways to make life easier and AI seems to be doing all of those things pretty well so far.

First, let's talk about the good bits of artificial intelligence and how it helps our society before jumping to the not-so-bright consequences of it. The good news is that artificial intelligence is revolutionizing industries at a scale and at a rate which was never possible before.

One very good example would the rise of self-driving electric cars (and trucks) made by Tesla that, quite literally, help you get to your destination without having to drive at all!

When in use, the AI software used in Tesla cars constantly scans the environment that it is in, predicts the movements of other vehicles on the road, and controls acceleration and brakes all by itself without needing any human interaction.

There are a lot of potential use-cases of artificial intelligence, even for governments and national security systems. In the coming years, it is said that AI can even help us solve and prevent crimes such as money laundering and terrorism – something that will greatly help regulatory institutions like FATF.

The FATF (The Financial Action Task Force) is an intergovernmental body who serves as a watchdog for such crimes. They undertake corrective measures by categorizing countries in various lists such as the FATF Grey Countries List. You can read more about it by clicking the link mentioned above!

The Limitations and Drawbacks of Artificial Intelligence

So far, we have seen how artificial intelligence is helping industries expand their boundaries and grow exponentially and how it can make our everyday lives much more convenient and simpler.

But the story doesn't end there. Even though artificial intelligence is a game-changing miracle technology to some, it has proved to be a nightmare for others. Why? Well, mainly because it is putting millions of people out of their jobs every single day. AI has replaced many job positions simply because it is more efficient, less expensive, and doesn't require incentives to work.

While an employee needs a fixed monthly salary, bonuses, training, orientation, and even time off work to be at their peak performance, an AI software only needs maintenance and upgrades. Plus, it doesn't need any time off work and can perform tasks 24x7 without any fatigue.

AI has especially been a bad news for the people working in manufacturing companies because robots can be automated to perform the same routine tasks everyday with minimum human interference.

Conclusion

All of this does indeed sound very confusing and perhaps even controversial. As transformative of a technology AI is, it is certainly something that needs to be supervised, regulated, and worked on with proper precaution. After all, it's not the first time humans have built something that can harm themselves if not handled properly. Thank you for reading this article! We hope you learned something new.