PAPER 2: PLANNING TO ADDRESS THE IMPACT

OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Jessica Baker
OGL 340: Artificial Intelligence: The Human Side
Bill Erwin
2/23/2023

Total Word Count: 2125 words

 PAPER 2: PLANNING TO ADDRESS THE IMPACT OF AI

We are Living in the Future

Artificial Intelligence feels like a term that belongs in a science fiction novel, not

something that is impacting our everyday life. I feel like this is partially because no one ever

feels like we are as far into the future as we are. It was 1968, 55 years ago, when the movie

2001: A Space Odyssey was released. No, we didn’t have a sentient computer named Hal nor are

we taking manned missions to Jupiter. But we have AlphaGo and ChatGPT. The world of

sentient computers is still a concept of science fiction, but we have found much more practical

applications for Artificial Intelligence.

Addressing the Economic/Political AI Issues

My Organization Plan

Organizations need to be able to distinguish where the line that defines the company

culture is. Is this line more on the side of technology and implementing artificial intelligence and

automation over humans or does it lay with the humans? I don’t think it should be on either

extreme but somewhere in the middle. Last year I attended a dealer convention for the

International brand of trucks. I had the opportunity to sit in on the opening ceremony. During the

presentation, they talked heavily about “uptime” and how smart trucks or self-driving trucks can

benefit the dealerships. The goal is that the trucks themselves will manage their service schedule

and will communicate electronically with the dealership to schedule an oil change at the location

closest to their physical location when the oil change comes due. This would allow the

dealership’s inventory management system to proactively order the necessary parts so that when
the truck comes in, everything will be ready and will only be down while the actual work is

being performed. On one hand, I was amazed by how easy everything seemed. On the other

hand, I worried about what this would do to my position as a customer service representative for

the program. I truly believe that there are a lot of applications where artificial intelligence will

allow our team to work smarter, not harder. One big one that comes to mind is optimizing credit

lines, especially if our systems can work with the truck and dealership systems to determine

when service will be needed. This means that the truck schedules the oil change, the dealer’s

inventory system ensures the parts are on hand and our system ensures that the customer can

cover the charge for the oil change.

This isn’t a solution to the loss of driving jobs but I also believe smart trucks, (and cars),

should have a human on board for emergencies or manual applications. I am not sure exactly

how I envision that working just yet because you cannot expect a human to remain engaged in

the skills necessary for driving if they aren’t the ones actually driving. Road trip passengers are a

prime example. I can’t tell you how many times I have slept in the front seat while my husband

drives us to our destination. I’m sure that someone smarter than myself will figure out a way for

human and artificial intelligence to work together for driving scenarios.

Now moving on to pollical ramifications or artificial intelligence. I think we as

Americans are stuck in the mindset of how can we be the best. This needs to change, we need to

have the mindset of how can we make the world the best. Kai-Fu Lee tells us that the “true value

[of artificial intelligence] lies not in destruction but in creation,” (2018, p. 227). When the United

States creates a great piece of technology, whether it’s AI or an iPhone, the whole world has the

potential to benefit. “It should also turn our competitive instincts into a search for cooperative
solutions to the common challenges that we all face as human beings, people whose fates are

inextricably intertwined across all economic classes and national borders,” (Lee, 2018, p. 228).

Andrew Yang brings up a good point. So often we start with good intentions and become

jaded by the money instead of doing good. While I appreciate his idea of paying presidents 4

million dollars a year for life but they are prohibited from taking paid speaking jobs or working

on the board of a for-profit company. I don’t think that is the right approach. I think the money is

a bit high, but then again, I am not now, nor do I ever anticipate a time when $400,000 a year

will seem like not enough. I might be biased in my understanding of the actual values of the

number that I’m sure he came up with for a reason. But the idea that people who hold positions

of power are always going to cater to others in positions of power or that they will follow the

money is a very scary reality and it needs to change. We need to be better about making sure

humanity is valued more than capital, (Yang, 2018. P. 205). Maybe we find a way to incorporate

artificial intelligence to help guide decisions on the side of ethics and morality. We will have to

ensure it’s transparent, explainable, and follows the rules and guidelines (Marr, 2021) that are in

place, but humans should be held to the same standards.

My Personal Plan

I don’t have a vehicle that can drive itself. It doesn’t even have the auto-brake

functionality but that doesn’t mean that it’s without levels of artificial intelligence. I recently had

to change my oil for the first time since I purchased this vehicle. I have the decal on the window

with the mileage for the next oil change and assumed that was the way the process worked. But

about 100 miles before I hit the number on the decal, my car started prompting me that it was

almost time to change my oil. No, my car didn’t reach out to the dealership to schedule the oil

change itself but in the future, it’s feasible that it will. There are many different ways I can
imagine the vehicle was coded to provide this prompt from miles between changes to evaluating

the quality of the oil in the vehicle. But no matter the method, the indication on my dashboard

that was telling me to change my oil was something I have never had in a vehicle before and I

wonder what other features I have yet to discover.

Addressing the Sociological AI Issues

My Organization Plan

When we believe that AI will take our jobs and our livelihoods, we leave ourselves open

to losing our jobs and our livelihoods. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy, (Lee, 2018. p. 230). The

people who believe AI is out to take their jobs are most likely the people who won’t embrace the

positive aspects that come with AI integration such as training plans that are personalized to each

role and potentially each person. When they don’t accept AI, they might be outspoken or rebel

against using it and as such not perform to standards within their role. I am always amazed at the

ways that AI can work with humans rather than against them. One of the applications I am most

excited to implement is figuring out how to utilize AI to work smarter, not harder. This will

allow us to grow our program while maintaining a staff of the same size. We have already started

on the path to automation. We have a process that when done manually takes no less than two

hours yet when our robotic process automation completes the task, it can be completed in about 5

minutes. But thankfully, my role is not in jeopardy because the process only works on a few

specific application types and is not yet 100% accurate.

At our most recent company town hall, our Chief Product and Information Officer gave

an entire presentation on his experience with ChatGPT. He asked it to provide a description of

our company and how we can market ourselves to customers. It wasn’t perfect but it was

surprisingly accurate without repeating information verbatim from our website. He inspired one
of our engineers to utilize ChatGPT to come up with a slogan that we could put on t-shirts for

our employee appreciation event coming up. ChatGPT won’t be replacing our marketing team, at

least not yet, but it is another tool in the toolbox.

My Personal Plan

Much like our engineers had fun with ChatGPT and its business applications, I came

across a scout leader who used ChatGPT to come up with games focused on the “Cub Scout Six

Essentials.” He ran through several variations. The output listed only three of the six correctly

but provided a game that could be fun. On the second attempt, he corrected ChatGPT and told it

what the correct six essentials are and it provided yet another game. And lastly, the third attempt

presented four of the six essentials and yet another game. The other leader mentioned how

impressed he was that the output provided a different game each time. He even went on to

comment that it saved him a bunch of time that he would have spent on Google looking for

games. This could be the ushering in of the next big thing. Chatbots might be the next step in

search engine evolution. ChatGPT can provide answers from multiple sources in easy to

comprehend format and even generate ideas from scratch, (Grant & Metz, 2022). ChatGPT is a

tool that I never expected.

Addressing the Psychological AI Issues

My Organization Plan

Artificial intelligence still has an ominous connotation. The computers will become

sentient and take over. Or maybe AI will take our jobs. But that’s just not true. But AI still has

risks, and these risks can take a toll on employees' morale. Maybe if companies could take some

advice on AI governance from a chatbot, “Leaders should consider implementing regulations

that balance the need to promote the use of AI with the need to protect the public and ensure that
AI systems are used responsibly,” (Hilton Segel & Hatami, 2023). Even AI knows that the needs

of the people need to be protected. If we can find a happy medium between AI applications and

human involvement, employees will be able to breathe knowing their positions are safe from

being taken over by AI.

My Personal Plan

Artificial intelligence and automation are a part of my daily life as a remote worker. I

know my smartphone, my email, our chat platforms, and numerous other platforms that I use

every day are learning to be the platform for me. They learn the way I communicate and suggest

words or phrases before I can type them in. This means that I am more productive because my

brain and the platform are working together rather than against one another. Now if only we

could find a way to implement mind-reading into areas that truly matter such as health care,

especially mental healthcare. Once we can successfully and consistently implement AI into

mental health visits, I think the abundance of Americans who are suffering will be able to get

some direction and the help they need. Maybe given enough data we can even help direct people

to the right medication, the first time. As a mom to children with ADHD, I would love it if there

was a test that they could take that would point us toward the right medication and we didn’t

have to question if this is the correct medication formula for my child. I sincerely hope that AI

can help us get to that point.

Conclusion

Lee said “if we believe that life has meaning beyond this material rat race, then AI just

might be the tool that can help us uncover that deeper meaning,” (2018, p. 230). How can we

argue with this? AI has the potential to make us better humans and to make the world a better

place. We just have to be willing to sacrifice the capitalist tendencies that define Americans.
 References

Lee, K.-F. (2018). AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the new world order. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Yang, A. (2018). The War on Normal People. New York: Hachette Books.

Marr, Bernard. (September 10, 2021). How Do We Use Artificial Intelligence Ethically? Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2021/09/10/how-do-we-use-artificial-

intelligence-ethically/?sh=1c295b5e79fd

Grant, Nico & Metz, Cade. (December 21, 2022). A New Chat Bot Is a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s

Search Business. The New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/technology/ai-chatgpt-google-search.html

Hilton Segel, Liz & Hatami, Homayoun. (February 20, 2023). Leading Off. McKinsey &

Company.

https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/email/leadingoff/2023/02/20/2023-02-

20a.html