ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE IMPACT

OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Joseph Thannisch
OGL 340: Artificial Intelligence: The Human Side
Bill Erwin
02/08/2023

Total Word Count: 1505 words

 PAPER 1
“ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE IMPACT
OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE”

What Level of Awareness Exists?

Artificial Intelligence is at the forefront of todays vast changes in our everyday lives. The
advances that are being made in the field of Artificial Intelligence will have a huge impact on the
future of humanity, whether that impact is positive, or negative, is something that people need to
be aware of and start addressing now, not later. Currently it seems as though the level of
awareness of Artificial Intelligence is mixed. Some people are aware that there are some levels
of functioning Artificial Intelligence already in our daily lives. Others when asked about that
topic, usually the first thing that pops to people’s mind is movies like The Terminator, or iRobot
in which computers are deciding to end humanity or robots are achieving sentience. This shows
that some people are aware of what Artificial intelligence really is, while others think that it is
still years away and something that we don’t need to worry about. But what many people don’t
realize, is that AI technology is advancing at a rapid pace, and there will be many economical,
sociological, and psychological impacts on all humans, most of which seems like we are vastly
unprepared for. We will be taking a look at these impacts, both positive and negative, so we can
decide on a plan going forward in order to minimize the negatives and expand on the positives.

The Economic/Political Impact of AI

There are many economic and political impacts that Artificial Intelligence will have. The
main one that seemed to be highlighted in the readings was the loss of jobs that continuing
improvements of Artificial intelligence will have. For example, companies like Tesla, Google,
and others, are working on AI that will produce autonomous vehicles. Once improved to the
point that the government and society is comfortable with this technology, jobs like truck driver
and Uber/Lyft driver will be replaced. This will not only leave vast amounts of drivers (most of
whom are men) without jobs, and without suitable skills that will translate to other fields. Not
only will this advancement impact the drivers, but it will also impact the food and hospitality
industries that rely on truckers. There are many trucks stops and motels along major highways
that depend on the revenue that truck drivers provide, autonomous vehicles will not need food or
rooms to stay in, which will effectively destroy the jobs that rely on truckers. Truck drivers are
not the only ones at risk of losing their jobs though. Many jobs that are repetitive or require low
skill will be replaced very soon, if they have not been replaced already. Consider fast food
restaurants, where you can walk in and order your food from a screen instead of talking to a
human. Or look around next time you go to a grocery store, more likely than not there will be
multiple self-check-out machines. Both of these machines have already replaced people who
used to rely on these jobs for their income, and the list of these jobs being replaced will only
continue to grow. Most people think that only blue collar jobs are at risk of being replaced, but
that is not the case, many white collar jobs will be, and in some cases, are already being replaced.
There is AI that can read X-rays just as good as a human doctor, AI that can offer jail sentencing
and bond recommendations based on similar crimes. There are very few, if maybe no jobs that
AI will not be able to replace in the future. The political aspect wasn’t focused on as much as the
job loss but there was one aspect that stuck out to me. This was the fact the AI software can be
biased depending on the data that it is programed with, as well as from the bias of the developer.
One key area where this can have an impact is on political elections. Ads can be targeted at
certain demographics and placed in areas or social media that are highly visited, which with the
help of AI can be placed where it will have the most impact. Another political aspect that AI has
an impact on is on crime. There is AI that can help police departments to better place their patrol
units, by looking at past data and seeing where crime is most likely to take place and around
what times, this also brings in the question of AI being biased based on the data used and
whoever did the programing. Another way AI is having an impact is on the court systems. There
is AI that can recommend jail sentencing, to help judges figure out what would be fair based on
similar crimes. But of course, this has also been controversial, due to inequalities based on race.

The Sociological Impact of AI

Artificial Intelligence is already having a major sociological impact on humanity and that
impact will only continue to increase as AI technology is further improved. One of the most
important will be what humans will be doing as more and more jobs are replaced by AI. Not only
are blue collar jobs being replaced but so are white collar jobs, like lawyers and therapists. So
what happens when the majority of jobs are replaced by AI? As more people become
unemployed, something will need to be done in order for humans to have a purpose in their daily
lives. This leads to another impact on society. Studies show that many young men are deciding to
stay at home due to job insecurity, instead of working they are happier to stay at home and play
video games. While this increases their happiness in their early 20s, once they get into their 30s
and 40s their happiness levels starts to decrease. Another impact of rising unemployment is the
affect it will have on family structures. Women, especially ones with college degrees, don’t want
to get involved with unemployed men, or even men with less education than themselves. This is
leading to many single mothers deciding to raise kids on their own, or in some cases to skip out
on having kids altogether. While there is nothing wrong with that, studies have shown that kids,
especially young man, without a father figure at home, tend to view having good grades as being
“feminine” and not manly, so there is less focus on doing well in school, which leads to lower
education levels. Another sociological impact of AI is on our privacy. In order for AI to keep
improving, large amounts of data need to be fed into it. This brings up the question what data is
off limits and what kind of surveillance is being done at all times. Amazon Alexa products have
become a staple in many homes, what happens with all the information that it takes in, where
does it all go and who oversees thus data? There are many questions that improvements on AI
will have. There are other aspects that will need to be addressed as well.

The Psychological Impact of AI

AI is having major psychological impacts on humanity as well. One of the main causes of
psychological issues is due to the unemployment rates that are rising due to advanced AI
automation. More people are suffering from anxiety and depression due to losing jobs and
having no sense of purpose in life. Having no sense of purpose leads to rising suicide rate, which
are already increasing across the world. On the opposite side of that though, is the psychological
benefits that AI can have. Companies are working on AI that can monitor social media accounts
for data that can hint at possible suicidal thoughts, once found, that person can receive help.
There is also AI that can read facial expressions for signs of that persons mental state and
whether they are happy or depressed. Another positive technology being worked on is AI that
can look at conversation between therapists and patients and can diagnose which therapy styles
and treatments are working and which ones are not. By looking at this data, treatments can be
personalized.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence will be one of the most important human advances in our history.
There are many negatives that come from advances in Artificial Intelligence, many of which
were expanded on. But there are positives as well, automation could lead to people doing
creative, or helpful jobs that they actually enjoy doing, instead of working somewhere they don’t
like just for a check. As a society we need to address Artificial Intelligence and the impacts it
will have on our society, not years from now but today. The longer we wait to address it, the
more we risk the negative consequences expanding and getting out of control. The risks are too
great for us to stand by and not take action.