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International Public Policy Forum

Qualifying Round Essay
 
 

 
   Jayshree Periwal International School
Address: Mahapura Rd, Narayan-Y-Block
 Mahapura, Rajasthan, India 302026
Phone Number: (+91) 0141 305 7777
 
 

  
   On the topic:
  “Resolved: The benefits of artificial intelligence outweigh the harms.”
 
 
 
 Composed by:
 Mehak Rajoria
 Shounik Joshi
 Anany Kotawala
 
 On our honor, we pledge that we have received no unauthorized assistance on this work.
 

   Coached and Submitted by:

Dr. Charu Huria 
        Contact Phone Number: (+91)9829374557
         Contact E-mail Address: charuhuria@jpischool.com
                      mrajoria@jpischool.com

I. Introduction   

Unfortunately, due to mass media, the notions and qualms associated with Artificial

Intelligence are that of science fiction, futuristic human-killing robots. However, AI is

already deeply rooted in our day to day lives. Whether it's enhancing customer experience

through recommendations on online shopping or online streaming or the search bar, Siri on
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the iPhone, plucking the right crops on the farm, self-driving cars, 24/7 available chat boxes,

AI is being used in numerous industries (Takyar).  Especially in the wake of the recent

pandemic, the AI industry is expecting to reach 14.05 billion USD by 2023. In China, AI is

strongly invested in the health industry with Technology firms legally being allowed to track

individuals themselves to see who might have been exposed to the virus (Dialani). Similarly,

a Toronto based company BlueDot aims to sift through data to predict where Covid-19 may

spread and has successfully done so for several cities after the outbreak surfaced in Wuhan.

Even with AI's increasing development, it's ironic how still little people are aware of it. A

global study conducted by Peda shows only 34% of people think they have interacted with AI

technology, where in actuality it is 84% who have done so. This lack of knowledge leads to

misconceptions which cause unwarranted fear by 70% of people towards AI, with 20%

thinking AI will take over the world (Pega 7). "If people feel [mistakenly] victimized by the

technology they may resist its use, even if it means they lose out on [the several] benefits"

since AI technology is major  in sectors such as economics, medicine and cyberspace

(UKAuthority). Each sector is debatable with harms of loss of employment, expenses and

security threats being a pervading issue; however the affirmative argues that the benefits

overcome these areas of contention by impacting more people, being more likely and not

built on misconstrued information.

 II.  Healthcare 

Artificial technology has brought a paradigm shift to healthcare, one that has set

healthcare for innumerable deviations. Chronic diseases and cancer to radiology and risk

analogy, are some of the factors AI aids. There are nearly endless prospects to leverage

technology to implement more accurate, effective, and impactful intermediations at exactly

the right second in a patient’s care. The sole impact of AI on the rigidness of healthcare is
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something that has proved to revolutionize the actions and their functioning. The affiliation of

AI can transmute varied aspects of patient care, as well as administrative procedures between

the suppliers, payers and organizations majoring in pharmaceuticals. AI has not only

contributed to structured healthcare but unstructured healthcare as well (Kogan page).

“Seventy percent of all decisions in healthcare are based on a pathology result. Somewhere

between 70 and 75 percent of all the data in the electronic health records are from a

pathology result. So the more accurate it gets, and the sooner it gets to the right diagnosis, the

better things are going to be. That is what AI has the opportunity to deliver.”

(HealthITAnalytics).

Moreover, AI is endowed with self-amending qualities to enhance its precision in

consideration to criticism. According to a 2016 study from UCLA published in Nature

Scientific Reports, AI-powered special microscopes labeled with a deep learning computer

program were successful in identifying cancer cells with precision and were able to receive

95.5% accuracy in doing so. An AI system can support physicians by delivering relevant

medical information from various clinical practices and their medical history to provide

proper patient care. The food and drug administration currently approved caption guidance

which is an AI-powered software that allows professionals to capture echocardiographic

images at a diagnostic quality  of a patient’s heart. This software is trained to spot high-

quality 2D ultrasound images of the heart and capture video clips, revolutionizing the way

hearts are diagnosed. In addition, AI systems are capable of minimizing diagnostic and

therapeutic errors that are inevitable when undertaken by human clinical practice. Moreover,

they are capable enough of extracting useful information from a large patient population to

provide help in analyzing that data and linking them with the current data for health risk alert

and health outcome prediction. The McKinsey global institute made a report predicts that by

utilizing big-data strategies to advance decision making could approximately generate up to

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$100 billion in value over a year across the United States healthcare system, by enhancing

innovation, furthering the efficiency of research and clinical trials, and developing a new tool

for physicians, the customers and the regulators to promise the building of more personalized

approaches (Future of Life). 

“There has been a gruelling 30% fall in patient wait time before admittance after it

launched an AI-powered command centre in 2018. Twenty-two monitors improved the

patient experience and reduced the risk and streamline flow,” says John Hopkins Hospital.

The pivotal role here is being played by the private sector which incorporates venture funding

for fifty firms who proved to be the most efficient in the inculcation of AI with healthcare

which topped by the reaching the amounts of $8.5 billion, and even top technological firms,

along with the new ventures, aspiring pharmaceutical firms and firms producing devices used

in medical operations, all-engrossing with the emerging AI healthcare environment. AI’s

prevalent contributions to healthcare is also evident by the operations performed that

optimizes and controls the scheduling and the bed management; they even detect specific

cancers which allows the rise in survival rates and others even help in elevating healthcare

R&D and pharmacovigilance (BMJ journals). Even though the scale of many solutions

remains small, the escalating rate of adoption at the health system proves the relative change

in their importance. Here, the impact of AI has outweighed the potential for the harms and

what essentially matters is how it leads to an increase in user adoption and improved user

experience.

Understanding of AI in healthcare and its full potential is only in the initial days,

scratching a bit of the surface and irrespective of that the results have amazed industries.

Moreover, interviewees and survey respondents conclude that over the period they could see

three phases of scaling AI in healthcare which is crucial when underlining the importance and
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its impact in the healthcare sectors by looking at the available solutions and the pipeline of

ideas.

  The first phases bring forward AI solutions which address pedestrian and mostly

administrative tasks, which certainly absorb the significant time of the doctors and the nurses.

It optimizes operations and increases adoption and efficient technologies. It even circles the

AI applications that are encompassed by imaging which is already undertaken by hospitals in

specialities like radiology, pathology and ophthalmology (Marr). The inculcation of more AI

solutions that support the significant shift to home-based care instead of hospital-based care,

like remote monitoring, the modern AI-functioned is alerting systems or even virtual

assistance which allows patients to take ownership of care which is increasing drastically.

This phase also includes wide-ranging use of NPL solutions in the home as well as hospital

settings. The scaling up of AI implementation would be fuelled by cohesive cultivation of

technological advancements, with diverse cultural changes and the potential building within

the organizations. The third phase comprises the use of AI solutions in clinical practice

depending on evidence from clinical trials, along with intensifying the focal point being

improving and scaling clinical decision support tools which self learns from the previous

attempts and failures to introduce such tools into clinical practice and has tailored its mind-

set, culture and skills.

Nevertheless, the respondents view AI as an integral part of the value chain of

healthcare. The benefits of AI aforementioned have eliminated important problems

efficiently. While the cost of adopting AI might be too much, although the money spent is

reciprocated with such an intensity that it benefits large populations, outweighing the harms

of these initial costs. 

 III. Business, Economy & Employment 

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While examining AI in economics, the conclusion was made that there is enormous

potential in AI to contribute to the global economy. A paper by ITU implied that in a wider

prospect, a broad range of AI technologies could boost productivity levels and will certainly

exalt the GDP trajectories. The global AI market size is USD 39.9 billion, in addition to this,

it is expected to grow at an annual rate of 42.2% from 2020 to 2027.  The influence of AI

might not be linear but is building up at an accelerating pace, as shown by many statistics.

The rise is expected to be three or more times higher the growth from 2018 to 2023 till 2030,

by 2030, the medium simulation shows that 70% of firms may have adopted at least one

technology under the vast umbrella of AI. It is helping them create business insights, along

with a competitive advantage by creating better goods and services tailored to their

customers, undoubtedly, decreasing costs and improving compliance and safety

(Polachowska). An analysis leveraged on the 2017 research conducted by the MGI on

automation concluded more than 400 AI use cases to judge the potential of AI in analytics, in

addition to its possible role in reducing costs and improving the generation of revenue (ITU

19).

Moreover, the results of simulation of AI's gross and net effect on GDP and labour

markets show that AI could add around 16% to global output by 2030 or about 13 trillion

compared to 2018. The impact on economies would be vital if this synopsis were to

materialize. In the case of steam engines, it has been estimated that, between 1850 and 1910,

steam engines enabled productivity growth of 0.3%  per year.  Research has observed that the

introduction of automation in manufacturing and the inception of IT accounted for 0.4% and

0.6% in yearly productivity progress, respectively (ITU  21). Implying that in the wider

prospect using AI to enhance efforts to exterminate hunger can aid to elevate output and

productivity in areas like food production, agriculture, including other logistics. One such

example is FarmView, developed by AI researchers at Carnegie Mellon University teaming

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up with plant scientists and agricultural leaders; this endeavour consolidates AI, sensor

technologies and robotics to improve plant breeding and crop management, this effort can be

our opportunity of curbing the upcoming global food crisis (ITU, FarmView). Besides, AI

can also be employed to develop more definite indications of where poverty lies and how it is

distributed, also while determining how swiftly it is spreading. This application of AI helps in

concluding on where the resources should be prudently designated just like a US-based

research team, as they overlay high-resolution daytime images on night-time images while

using machine learning procedures to evaluate the asset wealth and the consumption

expenditure in the countries of Africa (Ralston, ITU).

Along with, AI for the development of transportation, specifically, to assure safety. 

AI can be considered as a primary aspect in order to improve the modern signalling on tracks

by implementing smart sensors and advanced analytics. AI can be revolutionary for the

commerce sector. It can also contribute to digital flows by promoting more efficient cross-

border commerce. Cross-border commerce accounts for roughly one-third of the digital data

flow. 30% to 40% of digital commerce can be credited to AI technologies ( ITU 27 ).  the

immense growth the field of AI is achieving, the future generations will be more prone to

advance technology; a situation may arise where only a minute number of people will be

employed in menial and intense physical tasks. However, this may lead to a shortage; but the

gap can be filled with using automation, resulting in higher efficiency in manufacturing.

Leading us to our other standpoint, employment, which has been gravely

misunderstood. Everyone has feared headlines saying that "robots will destroy a huge number

of jobs"; however, that fear is without the whole truth, thus misguided (Anderson). A century

ago, when factories and technology first rapidly developed in America's Roaring 20s, labor

workers were anxious as traditional industries started to suffer from factories producing

higher quality goods more rapidly, charging lower prices, and thus acquiring a larger market
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share.  Though it may seem that this competition led to a loss of jobs for workers, it was in

fact "a shift rather than a loss as manufacturing work vanished, new jobs of construction and

other services took its place," describes Bradford DeLong, economic professor at UCB

(Quartz). Similarly, history is repeating itself in the status quo: not only is the fear is present

yet again since as Linda Jojo, the chief digital officer at United Airlines puts it, "there is

always a fear of new technologies [even though] the result people feared does not tend to

happen", but also the "shift" or diversification of jobs with AI will happen again

(Ransbotham et al.).  Humans will still work, as reports affirm "people displaced by

automation will find other employment” but with more effectiveness, as they will shift their

focus to a higher value, less tedious jobs (McKinsey & Company 4; PWC).  

With AI involved, there will be rising incomes and consumption due to the

contribution of AI in segments. Secondly, the growth of AI in these industries will follow an

increase in investment and infrastructure because developing economies continue to

urbanize,  allowing the increase of positions "for workers in occupations from manufacturing

to construction,"  proving once again AI isn’t taking over jobs, rather creating others.

Together with these trends, along with its proper implementation, can create 555 million to

890 million new jobs globally (McKinsey & Company   12-14). 

 Most essentially, contrary to popular belief fueled by mass media, "AI is not a story

of human versus machine. Instead, it is human and machine versus problem (The Robot

Revolution)." People who are more aware of AI from sources other than the media, business

executives, 500 of them on a PWSC 2018 study agreed to a higher percentage than half that

AI and humans working together will be the link to achieve higher profitability (PWC).

IV.  CyberSpace

The hesitance with the growing potential of AI is linked with the concern of “what

would happen if it falls into the wrong hands?,” since AI can in the future, late in the
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timeframe, be used into CyberCrime, automating cyberattacks on immense scales. However,

AI’s advancements in Cybersecurity are beneficial in preventing these attacks before they

even happen, and enhancing our digital lives daily even when this “if” does not occur. For

instance, the most common, 1 in 99 emails method of cyberattack is phishing: where emails

claiming a different identity try to steal sensitive information (Ramachandran) fraudulently.

With AI, the $2.4M-$9.4M (out of one million banking victims) that are lost through this,

would not be as much since AI can also scan, identify and react to malicious threats from

worldwide (Danchev). Moreover, with its developing behaviour analytics, creating

personalized patterns of standard user behavior, any suspicious activity out of the norm like a

sudden change in your typing speed will let the AI anticipate cyberattacks and mitigate them

instantly (Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy, 2016 page 28). As for other

cyber defenses, passwords are our only fragile barrier between cybercriminals and us, and yet

people tend to be careless, having the same passwords throughout accounts or never changing

them. Fortunately, with AI, developments have already been made to secure our passwords

through biometrics-based recognition of infra-red sensors and neural engines, working even

when outer appearance has been changed (Perinic). 

V.  Conclusion

Considering everything, AI is a double-edged sword that weighs unevenly, heavier to

the side of benefits. For people to inherently fear, thus automatically assume “robots will take

over our jobs,” is harmful as it ignores the possibilities that come with AI  allowing jobs to

diversify. By allowing expenses of AI technology in healthcare to be a deterrence to using

advancements and at a higher priority than the myriad of patients who lives might be saved

by having AI these more meticulous machines, is equivalent to letting these people die. In

cyberspace, the magnitude of opportunities that come with protecting our online security and

allowing digital lives to improve outweighs the probability of the harm “if” it falls into the
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wrong hands, and does so when the technology to mass-scale harm is even available.

Furthermore, for the 7.8 billion people in the world, knowing that AI will serve us, as it

already does, and trusting in this, rather than being deterred by the improbable or futuristic

harms or in the far, is a chance to take the future into our own hands and wield this double-

edged sword. 

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