Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Society

Written By Amit Vaidyanathan (Grade 8)

Imagine the future. What do you see? An anarchic society where crime is commonplace and nations on the brink of a nuclear war? Would you envision robots ruthlessly persecuting humans, a futuristic holocaust? An Orwellian society, where Big Brother intently observes all actions? Many of these scenarios are plausible, but there is only one that is certain to happen, and artificial intelligence is the key. It would be a genuinely utopian society, where disease, death, famine, and economic stagnation are myths of the past. Technological advancements would happen on an hourly basis. In essence, artificial intelligence is beneficial to humans because it can help eradicate diseases and has virtually immeasurable implications.

The first reason why artificial intelligence is beneficial to humankind is that it can help eradicate diseases. Artificial intelligence is already helping doctors at Cancer Commons cure many types of the most detrimental disease, cancer. “Cancer Commons uses MDMs [Molecular Disease Models] to find out the specific type of cancer a patient has and how they can best be treated.” These MDMs are stored in a complex system which is managed by AI. When a new patient arrives, the doctors run many tests on the patient while scouring the archive of MDMs to find the best possible treatment for the patient’s tumour type. The system then records whether the patient responded or didn’t to the treatment. It can then accommodate for another new MDM on the tumour type. According to Jay Tenenbaum and Jeff Shrager, both PhD, “Over time, the answers should lead to MDM models with increasingly specific molecular subclasses, linked to increasingly efficacious therapies.” The intricate connections with the system and the doctors increase the doctors’ knowledge exponentially, opening up implications in various other industries. This human-machine knowledge system leads to significant breakthroughs, outlining an ostensible correlation with the help of artificial intelligence and the increasing speed of the discovery of cures for different types of cancer. 

Another reason why artificial intelligence is beneficial to humans is that its implications are immeasurable. Artificial intelligence can function at a superhuman rate without consciousness at all, with only a few ten thousand lines of code. According to Sam Harris, PhD, “If humans were to develop AI with the intelligence of a human, within a week, the AI would produce 20,000 years of human-level work.” The ramifications of artificial intelligence are virtually infinite. It could traverse the spectrum of intelligence in ways humans cannot even conceive, producing various useful discoveries and inventions in the process. The contrivance of AI could be the last invention that humanity ever needs to make. AI could take care of our business affairs and personal data. With the inevitably sufficient technology, AI could build machines that would replace human workers, freeing up time for them to spend. It would extirpate the need for analytical jobs and manual labour. A widespread network of personal, individual AIs among humanity could even indicate which preferences to make. They could advise humans which people best suit their personality to have a stable long-term relationship, additional detail about which items they should buy based on both their designated human’s and the public’s detected preferences. The personal AIs would know humans better than they know themselves, and so humans don’t have to. The smooth integration of AI within human society is very explicit evidence of AI helping humanity.

However, opponents of artificial intelligence allege that the reduction of manual labour and analytical jobs performed by humans is harmful, as AI forces millions of people into unemployment and grants itself additional control over our lives. This proposition is blatant and fallacious. Although there is viable evidence, as AI can manipulate and interact with data in a myriad of methods humans cannot even imagine, there is no way that these AI can rise against us. AI has no consciousness, no feelings. Unlike human workers, they do not get tired or need to sleep. What this means is that productivity increases exponentially, and there are no demands, no strikes, and no complaints. These facts could be crucial improvements to the workplaces. Companies could function much faster, enabling the administrators, owners and shareholders attain exceptional wealth, and all the accounts can be stored and managed significantly more efficiently by a single computer. Also, as mentioned before, the workers now have much more time to pursue more personal things and to spend with their families, benefitting everyone working in the company, which is definite evidence of AI helping humanity.

There are numerous concerns about the significant implementation of artificial intelligence on human society. As mentioned before, these pleonastic solicitudes are unsubstantiated. Humanity has conclusive evidence that artificial intelligence is everything but a threat. In brief, artificial intelligence is beneficial to humanity, as it can help eradicate diseases and have virtually innumerable implications. We have to stop overreacting and exaggerating a nonexistent peril. AI is here, and it is here for good.

Featured Image Courtesy – InfoWorld