The Changing Times: Introduction of Artificial Systems
The traditional approach to technology presented human beings with machines under their control. The changing times are refurbishing the ideology of innovations by introducing artificial systems with the ability to make independent decisions. The machinery does not need any power from human beings making them autonomous. Artificial intelligence is a technological modification that programs a machine to imitate a human being by undertaking actions that require processing of ideas and making moral decisions. Such systems include self-driving vehicles and artificial soldiers used in combat to distinguish between enemies and friendly encounters. Artificial intelligence is replacing human functions in society, shifting dependence to machines. Such changes render human effort useless leading to economic challenges for human labor. Potentially, artificial intelligence can lead to the destruction of property, loss of jobs and motivation for the employees.
Impact on Employment: Joblessness and Financial Challenges
The fundamental purpose of any business is the art of making profits. Higher profit margins require a reduction in the business expenditure to ensure maximum savings. In procuring artificial intelligence, the investors undergo a one-time cost and start earning interest for the entire duration. Such dependence puts human labor at risk due to the recurrent cost of paying the employees every month. Therefore, the artificial intelligence in areas such as autonomous vehicles leads to joblessness among the population (Russell et al. 111). More application is evident in production companies where the machines hold the primary responsibilities of mixing the raw materials, overseeing the entire production as well as packaging of the finished products. Therefore, one application of the system is capable of taking the jobs of almost ten people. Any improvement in technology heightens the risk of rendering a higher part of the population jobless. Eventually, a more significant portion of the community will not be able to afford their daily needs.
Precision and Errors: Limitations of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence relies on programmed data that the machine relies on for instructions (Ghahramani 452.). The accuracy of the devices depends on the precision of the individual writing the program. For human beings, the knowledge gained in academic institutions act as the point of reference when performing duties at work. In case of an error, the human being can respond hastily and rectify the mistake using the prior knowledge and experience. However, artificial intelligence is different. For example, the people who construct fake soldiers feed them with data on attributes of an enemy. In combat, terror organizations might force children to carry weapons without their free will. In such cases, the machine cannot be able to tell the difference between the terrorists and the forced persons. Therefore, it will consider all of them as enemies and eliminate them.
Risks and Dependency: Potential Threats to Lives and Property
Artificial intelligence acts on the precise data fed by the manufacturer. For the example of the plastic soldiers, an end of the war would require new instructions for the machines. In case of any delays in changing the data, the device would continue killing the enemies. More so, any errors in the coding might lead to massive loss of lives and damages to property. Therefore, the machine would take more time to rectify the mistake as opposed to a human being. In the self-driven vehicles, any failure in the systems has the potential of causing a massive accident, especially with the heavy machinery. The problem lies in change of dependency from human labor to artificial application. As the dependence increases, the risk associated with the intelligence increases jeopardizing the lives of the people in the society. In the beginning, the applicability of the system capitalized on industrial processes alone but spread further to transport networks.
Threats to Employment: Motivation and Innovation
The duties undertaken by artificial intelligence possess a massive threat to human beings. For example, humanity relies on employment opportunities to earn a living. The salaries generated from the employment gives the workers financial independence to live a sustainable life. However, the role played by artificial intelligence in replacing human labor from the market leads to joblessness (Russell et al. 110). For example, the number of persons who work as drivers is high from a global scale. However, the self-autonomous vehicles render such people jobless creating a financial crisis on the lives of people who depend on such employment opportunities. Artificial intelligence should make the lives of human beings more comfortable but not pose a threat to their professional lives. In the traditional aspect, human beings worked hard to earn promotions in their respective fields of professionalism.
The Solution: Applicability and Benefits
However, the current adoption of technology is reducing the motivation among such employees. Most of them believe that the machines would replace them as employees in the production industry. Due to such perceptions, hardworking employees fail to give the companies the best services. The employees believe that the machines would replace them irrespective of the efforts they make in hitting the targets set by the management (Mason 45). Therefore, the productivity in the business reduces as the employees invest their efforts in looking for greener pastures in other fields. Due to the basic functioning of the artificial intelligence, innovation is quite rare. The systems depend on the creativity of their creator. Therefore, diversity in the field would make use of the variety offered by the workforce to invest in different approaches for the benefit of the business. Thus, the solution to artificial intelligence is limiting the fields of applicability to eliminate the threat posed to employment opportunities needed by human beings.
Appropriate Applications: Protecting Human Lives and Enhancement of Education
Artificial intelligence should be applicable in areas that pose a threat to human life (Shermer 32). The artificial nature of the systems means that the machines can survive in extreme environments where human being cannot thrive. For example, artificial intelligence is applicable when testing whether some areas are inhabitable for human existence. When examining the viability of life in other planets, it would be advisable to use artificial intelligence to avoid risking the human experience. Similarly, government institutions can invest in machines when organizations such as terror groups in the Middle East or countries in Africa such as Somalia and Nigeria. Such states have insurgents with weapons of mass destruction, which pose a severe threat to the soldiers. Therefore, the artificial intelligence would provide the best platform for fighting such battles due to the advantage of protecting the human life in such hostile environments.
Apart from war, artificial intelligence would be applicable to educational facilities. Internet of things through platforms such as Google is simplifying studies. Instead of wasting time in the library looking for books with the relevant information, artificial intelligence connects the students to the appropriate source of information at the touch of a button. The combination of the knowledge and the internet allows the students to access the data with ease and better their performance (Mahmud et al. 511). The internet is not discriminatory of the location from which the students are learning. For example, students in the United States would access the same information as those in the African continent. Therefore, artificial intelligence provides the users with a flat ground for obtaining data. Without the platform, countries in the developing nations would have access to a lower amount of information due to the inability of their states to buy updated books with the recent information required in their studies. Therefore, artificial intelligence has the potential to better the lives of the people concerning access to information.
Conclusion: Human and Artificial Intelligence Coexistence
Artificial intelligence refers to the introduction of coded information to machines, as a means of making them possess the ability to make independent decisions without influence from the users. The primary point of conflict between the system and humanity is the threat directed towards employment opportunities and risk to human lives. In such circumstances, human beings perceive intelligence as a source of competition with a higher advantage. Artificial intelligence cannot grow old or experience fatigue. Such attributes push the investors into opting for the systems as opposed to human beings who need frequent rest and monthly payment for their services. However, human dependence on artificial intelligence requires reducing conflict. Human beings should rely on the machines on circumstances that seem dangerous for human beings. For example, the devices can test inhabitable planets as well as hostile grounds when combating crime. However, replacing human beings with computers in their regular duties with artificial intelligence is bound to create some conflict. Therefore, artificial intelligence should make the lives of human beings better and not push humanity out of existence.
Works Cited
Ghahramani, Zoubin. "Probabilistic machine learning and artificial intelligence." Nature 521.7553 (2015): 452.
Mahmud, Jalal, Jeffrey Nichols, and Clemens Drews. "Where Is This Tweet From? Inferring Home Locations of Twitter Users." ICWSM 12 (2012): 511-514.
Mason, Richard O. "Four ethical issues of the information age." Computer Ethics. Routledge, 2017. 41-48.
Russell, Stuart, Daniel Dewey, and Max Tegmark. "Research priorities for robust and beneficial artificial intelligence." Ai Magazine 36.4 (2015): 105-114.
Shermer, Michael. "Why artificial intelligence is not an existential threat." Skeptic (Altadena, CA) 22.2 (2017): 29-36.
