The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Introduction

The rise of artificial intelligence is a growing topic that needs a lot of research. Artificial intelligence is impacting the present and future of human life and industries. It acts as the primary driver of upcoming technologies LIKE as robotics, big data analytics, and IoTs, and will still be a technical innovator in the future (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2019). While artificial intelligence has been there for over 30 years, it is still unclear to researchers how it will negatively or meaningfully impact human life. Therefore, they must understand its threats and come up with effective ways of dealing with those threats. AI is the greatest threat and greatest hope of humanity because it is the cutting edge of the evolution of intelligence itself and with that intelligence comes power (Miailhe, 2017). The rise of artificial intelligence comes with many positive impacts but there are threats including privacy violations, automation-spurred job loss, deep-fakes, weapons atomization, and inequality that can be solved by coming up with adequate safeguards that would help in regulating the AI itself.

Artificial intelligence is affecting and may affect work in most occupational groups. The most affected populations are likely to be those in white-collar and better-paid occupations including some in agriculture and manufacturing positions (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2019). Technical, finance, and business industries will be most affected as will production and resource industries. According to research, approximately 38% of jobs in the U. S are on the verge of being replaced by automation by 2030 higher than 21% in Japan, 30% in the UK, and 35% in Germany (Adams-Prassl, 2019). AI is generating increasing interest in the working population as technology is achieving superhuman performances in different tasks ranging from legal contracts to manufacturing to radiology. While research on automation software and robotics continues to exhibit that lower-wage and less-educated workers are likely to be most exposed to AI’s displacement, current analysis implies that better-paid and better-educated workers are likely to the most affected by AI.

The Rise of Deep Fakes, Privacy, Security

There are great resources about AI risks but two are specific to privacy; anonymity, and pseudonymity. Various tools mean it is easier to associate various identities with smaller data samples. As artificial intelligence continues to advance, natural barriers that protected privacy matter much less. Physical distance, foreign languages, and being in controlled places like homes and workspaces no longer protect people since ubiquitous connected sensor networks and systems to process the information in real-time turn them from sanctuaries to sources (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2019). Data kidnapping, murder, and mutilation are now easier, faster, cheaper, and harder to detect and prosecute. As fast as technology is evolving, people also need to evolve their legal and social ideas of what it means to be human, to shifting their digital selves from their property to their persons. Thus, privacy invasion is not just theft but abduction. Resale of data is human trafficking, data manipulation is mutilation, data destruction is attempted murder.

With AI companies can capture a great deal about people’s lives. For instance, tools like Alexa can spy on people all the time, the problem is this is a lot of data. Sifting through that to turn it into useful information is hard, something that AI may potentially make more cost-efficient and effective (Korinek & Stiglitz, 2018). At the same time, the more useful a tool like Alex is, via advances in AI, the more people will want one and the people who have one will use it. That means a larger and more useful data set. Data privacy is an issue and A-I is implicated in that AI can analyze far more data than humans ever bother with; consequently, an AI assistant can keep up with those special details that humans neglect and a completely fake relationship can begin to form, to blossom and exist for a long time.

Widening Socioeconomic Inequality

More recently, the adoption of modern manufacturing technology in China has been accompanied by a sharp increase in inequality (alongside rapidly declining poverty), in part because China has imposed restrictions on the ability of rural people to move to the coastal cities where the jobs are (Makridakis, 2017). But again, that is an increase in within-country inequality; China’s rise has led to a large decline in global inequality as the incomes of its citizens have gradually caught up with those of people in the rich countries.

More recently, the emergence of ICT seems to have played a large role in increasing within-country inequality in rich countries. That is partly a result of the ability of “superstars” in sports and entertainment to vastly expand the size of their audience and negotiate higher payments for their services (Masayuki, 2017). The same applies to business managers who benefit from the increased scale of enterprise enabled by ICT. The growing ability of robots and software applications to perform jobs previously performed by low-skill and mid-skill workers has further exacerbated the rise in within-country inequality.

Weapons Atomization

Perhaps one of the more frightening aspects of 21st-century military technology. AI, or artificial intelligence, is key to that newish buzzword “autonomous”, which means Autonomous Combat Vehicles (Mithas, Kude & Whitaker, 2018). Artificial. Autonomous military tech can function on the battlefield without human input. For instance, a small tank with no human on board can make its own decisions based on mission directives and its onboard sensors.

Scientists predict that there will come a time in the not-too-distant future when robots will do anything a human soldier can, or even better. The consequences of this are mind-boggling — wars fought between robots (and that includes robotic machines like aircraft and tanks) while the civilian populace cowers (Ruzsa, 2018). A reduction in the importance of population and an increase in the importance of raw materials and manufacturing capacity. As with any such fundamental change, it is impossible to know where it will lead. The right AI would change warfare. Something that could integrate all of the available information and respond instantly. The challenge is too hard for humans and algorithms. Digital fabrication has the potential to change warfare. It would allow a greater diversity of equipment, faster changes, and simpler logistics. The way we apply technology to warfare today is antiquated. A significant increase in power storage density would also change warfare (Masayuki, 2017). Modern warfare is severely crippled by the limitations and logistics of energy.

Unemployment

AI is likely to lead to job loss and unemployment in many sectors. AI today is similar in many applications, replacing workers who have less specialized skills, perhaps call center operators, office assistants (to a limited extent), and maybe soon, taxi drivers and truck drivers (Mithas, Kude & Whitaker, 2018). But AI is fundamentally different from machinery and is growing in breadth (of applications and industries), in geographic and economic scope, and in power (its capacity to address increasingly complex tasks). The deep learning efforts at Google and elsewhere are making AI systems learn faster, with a growing rate of acceleration. Advanced AI can now address increasingly complex tasks including medical diagnosis, stock market trading, weather prediction, and human behavioral modeling. Very soon, it will be able to take the place of certain types of teachers and find a role in education. AI already deals with complex systems in software and mathematics and seems to be only limited in applications that require interactions with the physical world and with people.

AI will put far more people out of work than companies can (re)train in time. That will have significant economic repercussions as corporations seeking to minimize costs will do so at the cost of rising unemployment (Rusza, 2018). There will need to be dramatic changes in social policies to avert large-scale economic disaster, first dramatic rises in the minimum wage, then eventually some type of universal income and welfare. It is the kind of change that requires significant leadership in our government, something that seems woefully absent today. First, most jobs that require repetitive sequence will surely be taken over by robots. Jobs like farming, driving, teaching, bank jobs, military jobs will vanish. It may take over sophisticated jobs as well for example the IT professionals, lawyers, surgeons(partially), pharmacists, heavy industry workers, engineers, construction workers which practically involves everything (Makridakis, 2017). No doubt the efficiency of these jobs will increase but the effect which will follow will be devastating. The only employment remaining would be the people who will control these robots and probably this number would be very less because a very small group of people will be able to control a large robot workforce. The only field that seems will be intact will be the research field although the majority of the work will be done by AI the driving force behind the research is commercial interest.

Solutions

The threats of AI can be solved by creating significant safeguards for regulating the AI itself. This can be achieved by first knowing how to exploit its programming (Mithas, Kude & Whitaker, 2018). If an AI was advanced enough to be a serious threat, there are no way technologists could hope to outsmart it. It is self-improving, meaning not only is it smarter than human beings, but the smarter it is, the faster it can make itself smarter.  However, it is still a computer. No matter how smart it gets, at some point, it operates by a set of guidelines and strategies set by the creators of the AI. If technologists know how the AI works, what its goals are, what method it uses to improve itself and achieve its goals, then maybe they create ways to stop the privacy threats. Nonetheless, group Consciousness can over-power any threat including an AI threat. This is one of the most effective ways to defeat a threat bigger than human beings (Korinek & Stiglitz, 2018). The mind can influence the environment which can alter time and space around an AI threat.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the rise of artificial intelligence is posing major threats to humanity such as the rise of deep fakes, privacy, security, weapon atomization, widening socioeconomic inequality, and unemployment. Among the major risks of AI on privacy includes anonymity and pseudonymity. AI is also leading to an increase in seriocomic inequality in many countries. Nonetheless, autonomous military tech can lead to significant warfare that is hard to handle. As technological changes continue many jobs will be lost. Thus, there is a need for effective ways like understanding the AI’s operations and group consciousness to deal with the issues.

References

Adams-Prassl, J. (2019). What if your boss was an algorithm? Economic Incentives, Legal Challenges, and the Rise of Artificial Intelligence at Work. Comp. Lab. L. & Pol’y J., 41(1), 123.

Haenlein, M., & Kaplan, A. (2019). A brief history of artificial intelligence: On the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence. California management review, 61(4), 5-14.

Korinek, A., & Stiglitz, J. E. (2018). Artificial Intelligence and Its Implications for Income Distribution and Unemployment. In: The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda (pg, 349-390). National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

Makridakis, S. (2017). The forthcoming Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution: Its impact on society and firms. Futures, 90(1), 46-60.

Masayuki, M. O. R. I. K. A. W. A. (2017). Who are afraid of losing their jobs to artificial intelligence and robots? evidence from a survey. RIETI Discussion Paper Series 17-E-069.

Miailhe, N. (2017). Understanding the Rise of Artificial Intelligence. Introduction. Field Actions Science Reports. The journal of field actions, (Special Issue 17), 5.

Mithas, S., Kude, T., & Whitaker, J. (2018). Artificial Intelligence and IT Professionals. IT Professional, 20(5), 6–13. doi:10.1109/mitp.2018.053891331

Ruzsa, C. R. (2018). Expected impacts of artificial intelligence solutions in the labor market–new jobs and jobs to be eliminated. Taylor, 10(4. szám), 81-90.