PAPER 2: PLANNING TO ADDRESS THE IMPACT

OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Karoly Fulop
OGL 340: Artificial Intelligence: The Human Side
Bill Erwin
2/23/23

Total Word Count: 1518 words

 PAPER 2: PLANNING TO ADDRESS THE IMPACT OF AI

Addressing the Economic/Political AI Issues

My Organization Plan

While the purpose of introducing AI in our lives and in the economic/political platform is

to make live easier and more comfortable, it brings some issues with it that have the potential of

greatly impacting a lot areas. As such, my plan is to address the issues that lay at the basis of this

problem. One aspect I wish to address is the reform of the educational system to help individuals

be successful and less indebted to banks and the government. The second area that needs

revamping is the new retraining programs of the currently employed.

The basic problem is that the jobs which do not require high level of educations are the

ones that will soon become obsolete because of automation. It will become difficult with lower

level educated people to find employment to support their families. One of the main reasons why

these people do not have higher education is that they cannot afford to go to college. Companies

should support their employees to get access to higher education and training. A good example is

what UBER does for the driver partners and their direct employees alike, where they pay for the

entire college tuition and offer a chance to improve their skills and become eligible for other

position. This is also a future picture of that industry where automation will most likely eliminate

to need for actual human driving with the introduction of self-driving vehicles. This type of

incentive offers a wonderful opportunity for people to choose other career opportunities in

 preparation of when their jobs become obsolete. The government should also take part of making

college more affordable with various incentives and regulations for colleges to limit the amount

they can charge in tuition fees. As Andy Yang points it out “Average college tuition has risen as

much as 440 percent in the last 25 years. It’s little wonder that students are being forced to load

up on government-provided loans to go to college. It’s not that professors are getting paid more.

It’s not even all the new buildings and facilities. It’s that universities have become more

bureaucratic and added layers of administrators.” (Yang, 2018, p. 192) This is a big issue that

should be addressed by the government, because sadly the education institutions became bank-

like, money driven organizations.

The second aspect pertains to retraining. Both organizations and government should

provide retraining options to help with the transitions of workers to new jobs. Those jobs that

usually require repetitive activities, however with the presence and evolution of AI, there is need

for social and digital skills. Companies should do a better job at it because the government’s take

on this issue is complicated. According to Andy Yang “We should 100 percent invest in

successful retraining of employees. But we should also know that we’re historically very bad at it

even in situations where we know displacement is happening. Expecting this to be effective over

a large population over a range of industries is more wishful thinking than policy

recommendation.” (Yang, 2018, p. 78)

My Personal Plan

As a personal plan I continue with my education and become better at my work and take

advantage of the training opportunities that are offered. I always live by the principle that “If you

don’t continue learning you are falling behind.” The world moves fast and we have to learn to

 move with it, otherwise we are going to be left behind and replaced by others or by machines. I

will also encourage others to seek continued education and create company policies that help

people to obtain advanced education opportunities. There will always be need for people that

have jobs in human interaction, critical thinking, strategic interpretation as those will not be

replaced be artificial intelligence.

Addressing the Sociological AI Issues

My Organization Plan

We are already observing the changes that AI has on organizations and the trend will

continue. It will affect them thoroughly therefore companies will need to find ways to keep their

employees happy and their productivity improving. With COVID-19 many from the workforce

turned nomad style or working from home. This in return has increased job satisfaction,

performance and productivity. This is the more positive side of things, however, there should me

more focus on avoiding the negative uses of AI. For example removing bias from the softwares

used by the legal systems and the police force. There is need for transparency and support for

proper guidelines on how these softwares are built.

My Personal Plan

My personal plan is to continue learning about the advancement of artificial intelligence.

In order to do that I will keep up and learn about all the possible changes brought by the progress

made in the AI domain. I will also be proactive in not letting the technology affecting my family

life and work balance. I will keep my children educated about the positive and negative effects of

what this technology can do to us and how to turn it in our favor instead of letting it disrupt our

lives. Safety and privacy will also be addressed so that we can all be safe and secure from any

malicious attempts coming from the outside. Better relationship and better communication will

play a key role in attaining all that.

Addressing the Psychological AI Issues

My Organization Plan

While the psychological impact of AI is unavoidable there are issues that need to be addressed.

On an organizational level we need to embrace some of the technological advancement that AI

brings. Face recognition technologies can recognize people that suffer from anxiety, depression,

and decreased social interaction. They can also help predicting what type of health issues these

people are suffering from and what remedies are available for them. The information can be used

by the healthcare representatives and the appropriate treatment can be recommended by the

doctors and all of it can be done in a virtual setting. All of that can be used for humankind’s

benefit and potentially increase human longevity. As far as the issues around how AI affecting

people’s self-worth and life purpose, those need to be addressed in relation with the economical

issues that I discussed earlier. I would advocate for policies that help people to obtain education

in areas that has been affected by the changes brought by AI and which have affected their

psychological well-being. In connection with the trainings it is also necessary to have mental

health revision of the team members so they feel valued and helped if they need such attention.

The need for such training is explained by Yang as follows “Hunnicutt observes that “Purpose,

meaning, identity, fulfillment, creativity, autonomy—all these things that positive psychology

has shown us to be necessary for well-being are absent in the average job.” Most jobs today are a

 means for survival. Without their structure and support, people suffer psychologically and

socially, as well as financially and even physically.” (Yang, 2018, p. 70)

My Personal Plan

Adopting AI technology and turning it to my favor and health is what I intend to do. I

will use the advantages offered by this innovation to live a better and healthier life and also my

family’s. I will also proactively keep check on my mental health and will ask other’s close to me

to remind me if I need help. The technology that is available and will become available in the

future will be in my interest to use to better navigate my overall health and get the help that I

need.

Conclusion

The change that AI brings fear into the people mind because it is happening at faster pace

than we are able to process. In order to have a standing chance to the change we all need to work

on many aspects of both personal and organizational level. It has to be done by education,

retraining and opening people up the advantages and positive innovation that AI brings into their

lives. As Kai-Fu Lee reminds us “We must simultaneously become more dynamic and more

empathetic as a society. We must change and grow faster than most think possible.” (Lee, 2017,

p. 14) The issue we are facing is that the awareness of AI is not at the optimal levels yet and we

need to understand how that will affect our lives. With all the possible ways that we can improve

our lives, our businesses, our organizations, our health our relationships, AI should be used in a

positive manner and to its fullest potential. We want to live in harmony with the opportunities

offered by the innovations of AI. The future looks scary, but at the same time very promising.

With proper control and regulations and mindful use of what we know and progress is being

made we can make the world a better place for all of us.

 References

Lee, K. (2018). AI superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. Boston, MA:

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Yang, A. (2018). The war on normal people: The truth about America's disappearing jobs and

why universal basic income is our future. New York, NY: Hachette Books.