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Artificial intelligence (AI) became an integral part of Americans’ daily lives in 2023. Looking ahead to 2024, anticipations are high for advancements in AI technology, with implications for industries like healthcare, transportation and education. But the breakneck pace of advancements has raised ethical concerns about its effects on society.
Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid is anxious about the widespread job displacement expected across various industries due to AI. She also sees AI’s potential for good and its capacity to bring about beneficial changes on a global scale.
So the idea that a chatbot can essentially do like a significant percentage of my job for me, and for countless other people and countless other industries across the country — it’s scary. But when I talk about these anxieties with my son, who is 12, and also quite wise, and who has spent the entirety of his life in close contact with digital miracles of one kind or another, when I talk to him about this, he asks me what, to my mind, is an excellent question.
He says, “Well, why do you think artificial intelligence would necessarily be bad?”
Well, because I don’t know, because humans are corruptible, and AI confers power, and power corrupts.
But anyway, then he says to me, “Wait, but AI is theoretically smarter than humans. So isn’t it more likely that it’ll be better than us, maybe able to solve problems that are beyond us, like global hunger, or even help us learn to treat each other better and more fairly?”
Okay, that’s possible. In my own life, I’ve actually started to engage with AI, despite considerable apprehension, and I have discovered that there are absolutely ways that I can use it to significantly beneficial effect.
