Drawbacks of AI: The Issues of the Near Future

Artificial Intelligence has been a crucial element in the last decade. It has many

benefits for our lives from using technology efficiently to being able to maintain other

subjects in our lives such as housework and formal occasions. However, as well as benefits,

AI has some drawbacks when possessed by the wrong people or organizations. Hence, in this

essay I will explain and elaborate on some drawbacks of AI and whether it constitutes a

danger. Also, I am quite convinced drawbacks are likely to cause great threats to humanity.

AI has gained so much importance in humans’ lives that it may be impossible to stay

out of it soon since AI provides many benefits on many applications used commonly,

however, besides these, the existence of some possible drawbacks should not be ignored

anymore. One of those drawbacks is inequality among people regarding to using AI

proficiently. This type of inequality can lead to creating a gap in public. According to

Verhagen (2021), 25% of adults cannot perform the most basic digital skills properly and 14%

of them can only perform some basic skills. This is an example of the relevant inequality.

Many scientists foresee that AI will be indispensable to humanity in the near future. Only

those who are capable of using it proficiently will be able to integrate themselves into the new

system which will be almost completely connected to the AI. Those who cannot use it

efficiently will be out of the system, leading to an inequality issue. Moreover, this inequality

is not only limited to being capable of using AI but also excessive expenses can lead to this.

As Verhagen indicates again, AI solutions require vast amounts of data storage, powerful

computers, and a high-speed internet connection and so, low and middle-income countries

and small enterprises may not afford to pay for such requirements. Also, while some can

easily reach AI and get to experience the latest developments, some do not have access to
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even a proper internet connection. Thus, excepting everyone to use technology by utilizing AI

is not advisable. Realizing such a project may serve only the purposes of companies’ which

produce and market AI. The second drawback is the fact that Artificial Intelligence dominates

the business sector with employers’ replacing humans with AI gradually. The fact that AI

performs tasks such as repairing devices, manufacturing in factories, or serving clients in

restaurants instead of people is likely to cause them to be unemployed and this might

impoverish the public although people may not have a workload and may not need to work

anymore when AI is completely integrated into the business sector. This can seem pleasant or

perhaps salvation firstly, however, later on, while the working class loses, companies can earn

more and more. So, without overcoming the current socio-economic problems in public,

integrating AI into every division of our lives will probably only deepen this socio-economic

gap.

AI, which can cause socio-economic inequality and tension although it is beneficial for

humans for maintaining lives effectively, constitutes a great danger in the near future because

according to researchers, and organizations. One of those organizations is undoubtedly the

UN. BBC (2017) states that the UN is conducting research about whether AI possesses a

danger to humanity in a research center in the Netherlands, which was founded for

investigating the future of AI. According to this research, in the near future, AI can replace

itself with humans in many sectors and robots with AI can confront humanity as a rival, so

that they can cause an arms race to start. Also, the fact that AI can evolve as such in

confronting humans as a rival is already uttered by some researchers. According to

Samuelsson (2022), the AI constitutes a danger in evolution:

Sam Harris, Elon Musk, Max Tegmark, and Nick Bostrom all warn of the risk that an

AI which can improve itself could come to annihilate modern society as the

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 consequence of a poorly-stated program or neglectful management. …. investment of

a construction crew removing ant hills to make way for a new highway. (p. 90)

Besides this danger, there is one more: Lacking of emotion. Humans care about their values,

beliefs, and emotions as well as the mind while taking decisions and these can affect humans’

decisions to a great extent. Since AI is destitute of emotion, it executes every command

without questioning it. As Megill (2013) states that AI has some problems because it does not

have inborn stimuli or reflexes unlike humans and AI has to calculate every possibility when

it encounters any problem that people can easily overcome with inborn reflexes. That shows

incidents that happen when AI encounters such problems. However, what is the most

important is who uses AI. In the wrong hands such as hackers, governments, and some

companies, AI might be perilous and suitable to shape the world’s destiny by founding a

dictatorship or enslaving humans by tracking or manipulating them over AI. Thus, AI

constitutes a great danger not for now but for the future in terms of shaping a new public with

a new system that is inappropriate for the nature of mankind.

To sum up, possible drawbacks of AI are its creating socio-economic inequality in the

public, excessive expenses leading to that inequality among people, employers’ replacing

humans with AI in the business sector, and Artificial Intelligence’s lacking of emotion. These

are why AI possesses danger. Governments and other authorities should introduce new laws

to provide digital security. They should also inspect the activities of tech companies to create

a safer environment while people use AI and prevent them and other people who want to do

evil from manipulating or tracking people over AI.

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 References

BBC, (2017, September 27). United Nations: Robots can stir the world with war and

unemployment. BBC. Birleşmiş Milletler: Robotlar savaş ve işsizlikle dünyayı

karıştırabilir - BBC News Türkçe

Megill, J. (2013). Emotion, cognition, and artificial intelligence. Minds & Machines, 24,

189-199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-013-9320-8

Samuelsson, P. C. (2022). Artificial consciousness: Our greatest ethical challenge. In

Department of Modern Languages (Ed.), ENG102 coursebook (pp. 89-92). Middle

East Technical University.

Verhagen, A. (2021). Opportunities and drawbacks of using artificial intelligence for

training. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers. OECD

Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/22729bd6-en