IT assignment 4

Ways in which AI is Changing our World for

the Better
Table of Contents
Creating New Jobs.............................................................................................................................2
Bridging Language Divides...............................................................................................................2
Transforming Government...............................................................................................................3
Delivering Health Care......................................................................................................................3
Creating Art.......................................................................................................................................3
The Evolution of AI...............................................................................................................................3
How AI Will Impact the Future.............................................................................................................4
Improved Business Automation......................................................................................................4
Job Disruption....................................................................................................................................4
Data Privacy Issues..........................................................................................................................5
Increased Regulation.......................................................................................................................5
Climate Change Concerns...............................................................................................................6
What Industries Will AI Impact the Most?..........................................................................................6
AI in Manufacturing...........................................................................................................................6
AI in Healthcare.................................................................................................................................7
AI in Finance......................................................................................................................................7
AI in Education..................................................................................................................................7
AI in Media.........................................................................................................................................7
AI in Customer Service....................................................................................................................8
AI in Transportation..........................................................................................................................8
Risks and Dangers of AI......................................................................................................................8
Job Losses.........................................................................................................................................8
Human Biases...................................................................................................................................9
Deepfakes and Misinformation........................................................................................................9
Data Privacy......................................................................................................................................9
Automated Weapons......................................................................................................................10
Superior Intelligence.......................................................................................................................10
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Man has long feared the rise of the machine – his own creation becoming
smarter and more intelligent than he. But while artificial intelligence and
machine learning are rapidly changing our world and powering the Fourth
Industrial Revolution, humanity does not need to be afraid.

Image created live at the 2018 June Board Meeting of Salzburg Global Seminar
using software developed by Ingo Hoffmann

Creating New Jobs

“Artificial intelligence will change the workforce,” affirms Carolyn Frantz,

Microsoft’s Corporate Secretary. The bleak view of AI as a job killer is but one
side of the coin: while 75 million jobs may disappear, as many as 133 million more
engaging, less repetitive new roles are expected to be created. AI “is an
opportunity for workers to focus on the parts of their jobs that may also be the
most satisfying to them,” says Frantz.

Bridging Language Divides

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Whether it’s teaching new languages in a personalized way or translating speech
and text in real-time, AI-powered language tools from Duolingo to Skype are
bridging social and cultural divides in our workplaces, classrooms and everyday
lives. Digital translation services are not “perfect,” admits Microsoft education
leader Mark Sparvell, but “they offer a means of understanding” that might not
otherwise be possible.

Transforming Government

Less paperwork, quicker responses, a more efficient bureaucracy – AI has the

power to drastically change public administration, but are governments ready? This
tech comes with both risks and opportunities that need to be understood and
evaluated. Academic Kevin Desouza believes gamification and role-playing could
be the key to public servants analyzing complex cases, coming up with better
solutions, and truly understanding the future of autonomous systems.

Delivering Health Care

AI has the potential to make health care “much more accessible and more
affordable,” insists Paul Bates, director of NHS services at Babylon Health.
Babylon, an app that offers symptom checking and fast access to physicians if
needed, is providing advice to more than one million residents in central London
through an AI-powered chatbot. Patients can get an accurate, safe, and convenient
answer in seconds – and save health care providers’ money too.

Creating Art

Computational creativity is drastically changing the nature of art. Software, more

than a tool, is becoming a creative collaborator, merging computer scientist with
artist. As Austrian artist Sonja Bäumel assures, “The exhibition space becomes a
lab; art becomes an expression of science, and the artist is the researcher.”

The Evolution of AI
AI has come a long way since 1951, when the first documented success of an
AI computer program was written by Christopher Strachey, whose checkers
program completed a whole game on the Ferranti Mark I computer at the
University of Manchester. Thanks to developments in machine learning
and deep learning, IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess grandmaster Garry
Kasparov in 1997, and the company’s IBM Watson won Jeopardy! in 2011.
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Since then, generative AI has spearheaded the latest chapter in AI’s
evolution, with OpenAI releasing its first GPT models in 2018. This has
culminated in OpenAI developing its GPT-4 model and ChatGPT, leading to
a proliferation of AI generators that can process queries to produce relevant
text, audio, images and other types of content.

AI has also been used to help sequence RNA for vaccines and model human
speech, technologies that rely on model- and algorithm-based machine
learning and increasingly focus on perception, reasoning and
generalization.

How AI Will Impact the Future

Improved Business Automation

About 55 percent of organizations have adopted AI to varying degrees,

suggesting increased automation for many businesses in the near future.
With the rise of chatbots and digital assistants, companies can rely on AI to
handle simple conversations with customers and answer basic queries from
employees.

AI’s ability to analyze massive amounts of data and convert its findings into
convenient visual formats can also accelerate the decision-making process.
Company leaders don’t have to spend time parsing through the data
themselves, instead using instant insights to make informed decisions.

“If [developers] understand what the technology is capable of and they

understand the domain very well, they start to make connections and say,
‘Maybe this is an AI problem, maybe that’s an AI problem,’” said Mike
Mendelson, a learner experience designer for NVIDIA. “That’s more often
the case than, ‘I have a specific problem I want to solve.’”

Job Disruption

Business automation has naturally led to fears over job losses. In fact,
employees believe almost one-third of their tasks could be performed by AI.
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Although AI has made gains in the workplace, it’s had an unequal impact
on different industries and professions. For example, manual jobs like
secretaries are at risk of being automated, but the demand for other
jobs like machine learning specialists and information security analysts has
risen.

Workers in more skilled or creative positions are more likely to have

their jobs augmented by AI, rather than be replaced. Whether forcing
employees to learn new tools or taking over their roles, AI is set to
spur upskilling efforts at both the individual and company level.

“One of the absolute prerequisites for AI to be successful in many [areas] is

that we invest tremendously in education to retrain people for new jobs,”
said Klara Nahrstedt, a computer science professor at the University of
Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and director of the school’s Coordinated
Science Laboratory.

Data Privacy Issues

Companies require large volumes of data to train the models that power
generative AI tools, and this process has come under intense scrutiny.
Concerns over companies collecting consumers’ personal data have led
the FTC to open an investigation into whether OpenAI has negatively
impacted consumers through its data collection methods after the company
potentially violated European data protection laws.

In response, the Biden-Harris administration developed an AI Bill of

Rights that lists data privacy as one of its core principles. Although this
legislation doesn’t carry much legal weight, it reflects the growing push to
prioritize data privacy and compel AI companies to be more transparent
and cautious about how they compile training data.

Increased Regulation

AI could shift the perspective on certain legal questions, depending on

how generative AI lawsuits unfold in 2024. For example, the issue of
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intellectual property has come to the forefront in light of copyright
lawsuits filed against OpenAI by writers, musicians and companies like The
New York Times. These lawsuits affect how the U.S. legal system interprets
what is private and public property, and a loss could spell major setbacks
for OpenAI and its competitors.

Ethical issues that have surfaced in connection to generative AI have placed

more pressure on the U.S. government to take a stronger stance. The
Biden-Harris administration has maintained its moderate position with
its latest executive order, creating rough guidelines around data privacy,
civil liberties, responsible AI and other aspects of AI. However, the
government could lean toward stricter regulations, depending on changes
in the political climate.

Climate Change Concerns

On a far grander scale, AI is poised to have a major effect on sustainability,

climate change and environmental issues. Optimists can view AI as a way to
make supply chains more efficient, carrying out predictive maintenance
and other procedures to reduce carbon emissions.

At the same time, AI could be seen as a key culprit in climate change. The
energy and resources required to create and maintain AI models could raise
carbon emissions by as much as 80 percent, dealing a devastating blow to
any sustainability efforts within tech. Even if AI is applied to climate-
conscious technology, the costs of building and training models could leave
society in a worse environmental situation than before.

What Industries Will AI Impact the Most?

There’s virtually no major industry that modern AI hasn’t already affected.
Here are a few of the industries undergoing the greatest changes as a result
of AI.

AI in Manufacturing
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Manufacturing has been benefiting from AI for years. With AI-enabled
robotic arms and other manufacturing bots dating back to the 1960s and
1970s, the industry has adapted well to the powers of AI. These industrial
robots typically work alongside humans to perform a limited range of tasks
like assembly and stacking, and predictive analysis sensors keep equipment
running smoothly.

AI in Healthcare

It may seem unlikely, but AI healthcare is already changing the way

humans interact with medical providers. Thanks to its big data analysis
capabilities, AI helps identify diseases more quickly and accurately, speed
up and streamline drug discovery and even monitor patients through
virtual nursing assistants.

AI in Finance

Banks, insurers and financial institutions leverage AI for a range of

applications like detecting fraud, conducting audits and evaluating
customers for loans. Traders have also used machine learning’s ability to
assess millions of data points at once, so they can quickly gauge risk and
make smart investing decisions.

AI in Education

AI in education will change the way humans of all ages learn. AI’s use of
machine learning, natural language processing and facial recognition help
digitize textbooks, detect plagiarism and gauge the emotions of students to
help determine who’s struggling or bored. Both presently and in the future,
AI tailors the experience of learning to student’s individual needs.

AI in Media
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Journalism is harnessing AI too, and will continue to benefit from it. One
example can be seen in The Associated Press’ use of Automated Insights,
which produces thousands of earning reports stories per year. But as
generative AI writing tools, such as ChatGPT, enter the
market, questions about their use in journalism abound.

AI in Customer Service

Most people dread getting a robocall, but AI in customer service can

provide the industry with data-driven tools that bring meaningful insights
to both the customer and the provider. AI tools powering the customer
service industry come in the form of chatbots and virtual assistants.

AI in Transportation

Transportation is one industry that is certainly teed up to be drastically

changed by AI. Self-driving cars and AI travel planners are just a couple of
facets of how we get from point A to point B that will be influenced by AI.
Even though autonomous vehicles are far from perfect, they will one day
ferry us from place to place.

Sasha Luccioni discusses the real reasons why AI is dangerous. | Video: TED
Risks and Dangers of AI
Despite reshaping numerous industries in positive ways, AI still has flaws
that leave room for concern. Here are a few potential risks of artificial
intelligence.

Job Losses

Between 2023 and 2028, 44 percent of workers’ skills will be disrupted. Not
all workers will be affected equally — women are more likely than men to
be exposed to AI in their jobs. Combine this with the fact that there is a
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gaping AI skills gap between men and women, and women seem much
more susceptible to losing their jobs. If companies don’t have steps in place
to upskill their workforces, the proliferation of AI could result in higher
unemployment and decreased opportunities for those of marginalized
backgrounds to break into tech.

Human Biases

The reputation of AI has been tainted with a habit of reflecting the biases of
the people who train the algorithmic models. For example, facial
recognition technology has been known to favor lighter-skinned
individuals, discriminating against people of color with darker
complexions. If researchers aren’t careful in rooting out these biases early
on, AI tools could reinforce these biases in the minds of users and
perpetuate social inequalities.

Deepfakes and Misinformation

The spread of deepfakes threatens to blur the lines between fiction and
reality, leading the general public to question what’s real and what isn’t.
And if people are unable to identify deepfakes, the impact
of misinformation could be dangerous to individuals and entire countries
alike. Deepfakes have been used to promote political propaganda, commit
financial fraud and place students in compromising positions, among other
use cases.

Data Privacy

Training AI models on public data increases the chances of data security

breaches that could expose consumers’ personal information. Companies
contribute to these risks by adding their own data as well. A 2024 Cisco
survey found that 48 percent of businesses have entered non-public
company information into generative AI tools and 69 percent are worried
these tools could damage their intellectual property and legal rights. A
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single breach could expose the information of millions of consumers and
leave organizations vulnerable as a result.

Automated Weapons

The use of AI in automated weapons poses a major threat to countries and

their general populations. While automated weapons systems are already
deadly, they also fail to discriminate between soldiers and civilians. Letting
artificial intelligence fall into the wrong hands could lead to irresponsible
use and the deployment of weapons that put larger groups of people at
risk.

Superior Intelligence

Nightmare scenarios depict what’s known as the technological singularity,

where superintelligent machines take over and permanently alter human
existence through enslavement or eradication. Even if AI systems never
reach this level, they can become more complex to the point where it’s
difficult to determine how AI makes decisions at times. This can lead to a
lack of transparency around how to fix algorithms when mistakes or
unintended behaviors occur.

“I don’t think the methods we use currently in these areas will lead to
machines that decide to kill us,” said Marc Gyongyosi, founder
of Onetrack.AI. “I think that maybe five or 10 years from now, I’ll have to
reevaluate that statement because we’ll have different methods available
and different ways to go about these things.”