Written by: Alden Tan (3D 2022)
Artificial intelligence has taken over the world by storm and is continuously advancing at a scary rate. Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword to humanity; on one hand, it is a crucial part of our daily lives but on the other, artificial intelligence has been taking over many jobs due to its high speed and accuracy. This might lead us to the question of whether humans need to fear advances in artificial intelligence. Of course we do.
Since the twentieth century, artificial intelligence (AI) has been a growing part of the daily lives of humans. Without AI, society would not have been able to evolve to the state it is today. In this modern day and age, AI is already a vital part of our society and community. Firstly, AI has been advancing at a faster rate than ever before. This is due to the fact that humans just cannot get enough of it. Entrepreneurs need it, governments need it, everyone needs it. However, if not kept in check, AI will definitely become a devastating plague that cannot be eradicated. Humans and businesses will become overly reliant on AI. AI will start taking over an increasing number of jobs. At the moment, AI has already been fully implemented in over 30% of the jobs in Singapore. This number might not be big but it definitely consists of a lot of jobs and this number will only keep on increasing. Experts have predicted that by 2030, AI will take over about 60% to 70% of jobs in Singapore. The advancement of AI is just too great. It will cause a retrenchment. Before long, AI might be able to take over almost every job we know of today. Further advancements in AI might disrupt the economy significantly which could be the downfall of humanity. Hence, advancements in AI should be feared as the number of jobs humans can have will become fewer and fewer as AI evolves.
Secondly, the advancement of AI will widen the income disparity of our society. The rich will become richer as the poor become poorer. This is a domino effect from the jobs being taken away from the middle to low class. The wealthy businessmen become more affluent by employing robots equipped with AI to do work, thus cutting down on the funds required to pay for workers’ salaries. This money will be used on upgrading and improving their machines that will bring about an exponential increase in revenue. Thus, those in poverty will not be able to enjoy these perks. This causes a separation of society which will make the lives of the poor extremely difficult as they will have fewer job opportunities. Therefore, the majority of people should be afraid of what is to come if we do not steer away from this path as they might hit the bottom hard.
On the other hand, discordant claimants might dissent that we have nothing to worry about since AI will not be able to advance more than humans. AI lacks life and cultural sensitivity, how could it ever overthrow humanity? However, what they fail to realise is that vindicators of the advancement in AI have proudly publicised that that AI can work over one thousand times faster than humans with 87% to 91% more accuracy. In addition, companies like Facebook have shared with the public that they have found theoretical ways that could give AI artificial emotion. The two aspects when paired together will bud the possibility of AI overthrowing humanity as we know today. With emotion, AI would be able to react like humans and achieve empathy. Therefore, the advancement of AI would mean AI will be the superior entity.
All in all, I agree that humans should fear advancements in artificial intelligence as these advancements will bring about the loss of jobs, a huge divergence of income levels and might lead to the downfall of humanity when AI no longer relies on humans to operate in the far future. I would opine that we should lessen the rate of advancement of AI and not cross the line of implanting emotion in AI.
MJR World of Words 