Did you know that artificial intelligence has negative effects on Society despite being beneficial? Artificial intelligence is a modern technology that is still being developed to satisfy the needs of human beings, such as efficiency and increased productivity. The birth of artificial intelligence came with Alan Turing between 1950 and 1956 when he published his work on computer intelligence and machinery that eventually came to be the Turing Test that the majority of experts used in measuring computer intelligence. AI is the intelligence of software or machines, which is the science of coming up with machines that reason and think like human beings. AI can be applied in different fields like in the case of internet searches, cybersecurity, management of customer relationships, personal assistants, and machine learning. Different types of AI that have been developed include voice assistants, cellphone picture recognition, and machine learning-based AI that detects fraud. Even though AI has advantages like efficiency and increased productivity, it has its drawbacks and a darker side towards Society. Artificial intelligence is bad for Society because it causes unemployment, routine discrimination, and immorality.
First, Artificial Intelligence causes unemployment. Unemployment rates have been on the increase because AI has grown to replace workers. According to Çağda and Co. (2021), AI with big data replaces labour demands, working habits, and known jobs. This has become an old problem that has eaten into the new era because machine intelligence is now preferred over human intelligence. The reasons behind this are based on the advantages that come with AI as compared to the human workforce. For example, AI replaces workers to increase productivity and competitiveness. AI can produce twice as much as the human workforce, which has become its winning advantage. Also, with increased productivity by AI, this implies that firms can compete better. Besides, AI has brought forth unemployment because technological advancements decrease AI costs and increase accessibility (Çağda et al., 2021). As a result, organizations are able to purchase more AI tools, putting the human workforce in danger. Many technological companies are now manufacturing and selling AI at fair prices. Therefore, when employers can easily access and purchase better options that will benefit the company, the old available option, which is the human workforce, in this case, will suffer the consequences as the accessibility of AI affects the rates of employment.
Second, Artificial Intelligence causes routine discrimination. AI has enabled routine discrimination in criminal justice. According to Hannah and Bender (2023), AI software makes predictions of future criminals unreliable. For example, a computer program that was used to predict the likelihood of criminal occurrence in future proved to be wrong. In this case, Vernon Prater and Borden were charged with burglary and armed robbery in that order. When the two were booked in jail, a computer program was made use of to predict the probability of Prater and Borden engaging in crimes in future. Border was rated to be a high risk, while Prater was at a lower risk. Two years after this prediction, the computer program proved unreliable because Border was not charged with any kind of crime, while Prater was charged with breaking into a warehouse (Hanna & Bender, 2023). In addition to this, AI software results in racial disparities. Hannah and Bender (2023) refer to Angwin and Co. in their article, ‘There’s software used across the country to predict future criminals. And it’s biased against blacks,’ noted that computer algorithms made mistakes based on white and black defendants where white people were mislabeled as low risks compared to their black counterparts. Moreover, AI has enabled discrimination in housing. For instance, AI tenant screening software performs racial discrimination against Hispanic and Black renters, like in the case of Mary Loius, a black, who was denied an apartment by the landlord because of the scores that were assigned to her by tenant-screening AI. This shows that particular races were denied by AI the opportunity to own houses (Hannah & Bender, 2023; Johnson, 2016)
Third, Artificial Intelligence is bad for Society because it causes immorality. AI has been used to create women’s pornographic representation. In this case, Women’s faces are swapped into pornographic videos where visitors are allowed by these machines to upload face pictures, and in turn, the uploaded face picture will turn the person into a porn star. All that is required to make such videos is a face picture, and the majority of the face pornographic videos are not based on consent. This site functions in a way that once a user uploads a face photo, the site will quickly open a porn video library where the user will select what he or she wants to generate a face-swapped video and then download it (Hannah & Bender, 2023; Hao, 2021). In many of the cases, AI tools have emerged where women’s images are misused. For example, Users who use such tools are able to strip naked people’s images. The majority of the victims of stripping AI tools are women; however, these sites have been removed online, but the codes still exist and have continued to come back in new ways.
However, Artificial Intelligence is not bad for Society. First, AI will promote economic sustainability. According to Khakurel and Co. (2018), governments that have advanced technologies invest in Artificial intelligence to get a competitive advantage. For instance, the United Kingdom government resorted to investing one billion Euros to put the United Kingdom at the front position of the Artificial Intelligence industry (Khakurel et al., 2018). In this case, investing in AI will make countries cease outsourcing production and services, thus bringing the production and services within the country. This, in turn, will result in reduced product prices and expenditures. Furthermore, AI will promote environmental sustainability. AI can be used to manage pollution, like in the case of the Environment Vulnerability Index, which can assess the environmental effect of aviation (Khakurel et al., 2018). Besides, the use of autonomous vehicles can help in the reduction of greenhouse gases because they consume less fuel. Even so, AI remains bad for Society because it negatively affects economies and promotes an unsustainable economy. In this case, Khakurel and Co. (2018) note that countries that invest heavily in AI and bring services and productions within the country will likely disrupt job markets and local businesses, resulting in decreased spending power of individuals and unemployment. Also, bringing services and production in-house can pressure and dislocate low-skilled workers’ wages and can interrupt middle-skill workers’ employment prospects—with only supervisory and creative roles remaining. It might be difficult for older middle and low-skilled workers to adapt to changes by participating in AI training programs. Hence, this demography is likely to experience early retirements and job losses. Lastly, AI negatively affects the environment and, hence, promotes an unsustainable environment as the increased consumption and production of technological tools lead to the depletion of natural resources. For example, using mining robots can increase rare earth yields and depletion. Increased depletion rates of natural resources result in environmental degradation (Khakurel et al., 2018).
In conclusion, Artificial Intelligence is dreadful for Society as it causes joblessness, favouritism, and misconduct. Not all forms of AI are good for Society; therefore, it should be treated with caution and used sparingly. Awareness should be spread about the adverse effects of AI to Society to inform people about the dreadful effects of Artificial intelligence.
References
Çağda, Y., Bir, E., Endüstri, S., Yapay, Y., & Etkileri, Z. (2021). An Old Problem in the New Era: Effects of Artificial Intelligence to Unemployment on the Way to Industry 5.0. Journal of Yasar University, 16, 77–94.
Hanna, A., & Bender, E. M. (2023, August 12). AI Causes Real Harm. Let’s Focus on That over the End-of-Humanity Hype. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-need-to-focus-on-ais-real-harms-not-imaginary-existential-risks/
Khakurel, J., Penzenstadler, B., Porras, J., Knutas, A., & Zhang, W. (2018). The Rise of Artificial Intelligence under the Lens of Sustainability. Technologies, 6(4), 100. https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies6040100
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