The Future of AI – Should We Be Scared?

There has been talk about artificial intelligence for many, many years, but it seems that more recently that there has been a legitimate push toward making AI a bigger part of the everyday life. From self-driving cars to marketing and everything in between, artificial intelligence has already been injected into the world more ways than you know.

Of course, there has always been that underlying fear about AI that’s been depicted in movies, books, and television shows. “The Terminator” series, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, and “I, Robot” are just a few pieces of media that have dealt with artificial intelligence taking over the world or doing nefarious things to human beings that detract from our humanity. Media like this and the loss of certain jobs has raised the question, though, “Should we be scared?” Let’s take a look at the future of AI to see how it will impact humanity.

Job Loss

Economists argue day and night about whether the population of Earth should continue to grow, if it should plateau where it is, or if it needs to shrink a little bit. Part of the reason why overpopulation might be a massive problem in the coming years is because of how many jobs will be completely done by artificial intelligence in the coming decades.

Economists predict that AI will take the place of many jobs that currently have a large population of people, from truck drivers to retail workers, to receptionists. As the years go on, people will figure out ways to make artificial intelligence even smarter, and will end up replacing more and more jobs. That leaves people to wonder how many jobs will even be left 100 years from now as everything becomes automated and how we’ll make money.

Loss of Humanity

One of the things that makes humans great is the ability to have our own personalities and artistic expression. In the future with AI, though, those might be completely wiped away. There are already plenty of AI programs that are creating art, with some companies using them for graphic design instead of hiring humans that can put actual detailed touches on things.

What’s much more concerning about art being replaced, though, is the use of things such as deepfakes. AI can now create a living video of you so that it looks like you’re moving and talking without even being in the room. It’s deeply disturbing, and the uses for deepfakes can be fun for a couple of things, but for the most part are entirely nefarious.

Part of the loss of humanity with AI is the loss of our privacy. There are a lot of companies that want to use artificial intelligence to know everything about you. Comedian Bo Burnham famously said in 2019 that companies are coming “for every second of your life” by finding out everything about you for marketing purposes since these companies are public and needing constant growth because there’s no other way to expand than to colonize your attention, and AI plays a big part in that.

Robots

There are plenty of instances in fiction where artificially intelligent robots develop their own feelings and lead a revolt against humans. In film, you have “The Terminator”, in books you have “I, Robot”, and in video games you have “Detroit: Become Human”. Of course, robotics that use AI are getting smarter, but how realistically could any of these scenarios happen?

Experts say that out of all of the fears regarding AI, the ones about a robot revolution are the least of our worries. There have been many intelligent people who say that there’s a possibility that it could happen, but that things would grind to a halt in terms of AI development before it comes close to happening.

Summary

There are plenty of reasons to worry about the future of artificial intelligence, no matter how much it can do for us. Truly, the only way that everyone can be satisfied with a future that’s filled with AI is for everyone to be assured an income that will get them by, and that the AI is perfected to keep everyone safe.

Self-driving cars are a great idea on paper, but until everyone can be assured that accidents will be avoided, there are still going to be a lot of people concerned and not wanting to get on board. Just like in all of the fictional media we mentioned, there will always be people dragged kicking and screaming into the AI-led future.