ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: ITS MERITS AND DEMERITS

OUTLINE

1.                    Introduction

(a)                  What is artificial intelligence?

(b)                  How has it modernized today’s world?

(c)                  Is it a threat to the survival of human race?

2.                    Merits of Artificial Intelligence

(a)                  Upgradation in the field of medicine

a.            Preventing heart attacks

b.            Personalized health monitoring

(b)                Augmenting the economy

(c)                Reducing the impacts of climate change

(d)                Transforming the transportation industry

a.            Self-driving vehicles

b.            Traffic management

(e)              Increasing yield of agricultural products

a.            Using agricultural robots

b.            Exploiting crop and soil monitoring

(f)             Utilization of artificial intelligence in space monitoring

(g)            Advancement in small businesses

(h)            Evolution in the entertainment industry

3.            Demerits of Artificial Intelligence

(a)          Invasion of privacy and exploitation of information

(b)        Loss of certain jobs

(c)        Fear of overpowering human beings

(d)        Creation of built-in biased algorithms

(e)        Accelerated hacking and terrorism      

Essay

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: ITS MERITS AND DEMERITS

Stephen Hawking, when saying, “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change” might have Artificial
Intelligence (AI) in mind on account of its pervasive intrusion into every known human field so much
so that fears are emerging that it may take up human jobs, rendering us useless for good. It can be
understood from a little incident occurred in a town near Hiroshima in Japan, where a 30 year old
lady was in hospital suffering from ovarian cancer. She was on beta-blocker: a drug used for
stabilizing blood pressure. Doctors worked diligently to assist the sick lady but were unaware that
she had only four and a half years to live. The question whether something could have had helped
the doctors to better deal with that case to make survival of the lady possible has the answer in
affirmative that yes, it is AI. However, this answer poses a new question about the nature of AI itself.
It is, in fact, a scientific field that uses computers to store data and respond to robotics or machines
for certain commands based on the stored data. It is also called machine intelligence. It has
progressed so miraculously in the last few decades, that it has brought huge changes in almost all
fields of life. Different AI-driven applications offer help to professionals, business persons, educators,
and marketers alike. Its use varies from personalized health monitoring and care to enabling
healthcare professionals to spot potential anomalies, from searching and rescuing missing people
through drones to saving people trapped in difficult situations. It is also being used in identifying
criminals and predicting earthquakes. Despite these advantages, it has become a controversial arena
on account of the threats that the scientific community is predicting risks it poses to human beings.
Along with the splendid rewards it has brought for us, AI also has serious demerits. The biggest fear
is the idea that AI technology is going to overrule human world. This means that AI will eventually
replace human beings because of its exceedingly overpowering nature competing with
comparatively weaker human capabilities. In other words, despite AI having resounding merits in
the field of medicine, economic growth, climate change, transportation, industrial engineering
etc., AI has demerits in that it can be used for criminal activities such as exploitation of
information, money laundering, terror financing and loss of jobs.

To begin with, AI has revolutionized the field of medicine as it constantly saving patients. For
example, through a very accurate procedure it scans the medical data and helps predict if a patient
is susceptible to heart attacks or strokes. This machine learning ability is enabling individuals to
monitor their health through devices such as smart watches, wrist bands, walking bands etc. The
more personal data these algorithms are fed with, the better they are able to understand a user’s
profile, enabling healthcare professionals to spot potential anomalies on time. Already built profiling
system makes the medical professionals utilize that computer charting system, and electronic health
record. Such a record is, in fact, an electronic version of a patient’s medical history maintained by
the providers over time that may include all of the key administrative clinical data relevant to that
person’s care under a particular provider, including demographics, progress notes, problems,
medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports.
Briefly, such a vast use of AI has transformed the very approach toward medical field.

 Furthermore, AI is seen as an engine of productivity and economic growth. Yet its unprecedented
impacts are in efficiency with which things are done in the post decision-making process through the
analysis of troves of data. In a journal published by the European Parliament, Accenture  forecasts
that by 2035, AI could double annual global economic growth rates. It further states that AI will drive
this growth in three important ways; first, it will cause a robust increase in labor productivity as
much as 40 percent on account of innovative technologies enabling more efficient workforce.
Second, it will create a new virtual workforce capable of solving problems and self-learning. Third,
the economy will benefit from the diffusion of innovation, which will have serious impacts on
different sectors on account of its ability to generate new revenue streams. Briefly put it, AI is going
to accelerate economic growth at an unprecedented rate.

 Moreover, AI has also proved beneficial for decreasing the impacts of climate change much better
than before. For  example, recently it has helped in the detection of deforestation through satellite
imagery, or aerial imagery, including gathering of data about where buildings, and infrastructure
used to stand in the past. Such a move is essential in policymaking to deal with climate change
issues. Researchers from Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA), Microsoft, and
ConscientAI Labs used GANs, a type of AI, to simulate what homes are likely to look like after facing
damages from rising sea levels, and violent storms. Likewise, Carbon Tracker is an independent
financial think-tank working toward the UN goal of preventing the operationalization of new coal
plants by 2020. By monitoring coal plant emissions with satellite imagery, Carbon Tracker is able to
use the data it gathers to convince the finance industry that carbon plants are unprofitable. This is
such a great assistance from AI that its robust use in the future may help in reducing risks involved
with fast climate change.

In addition to these merits, the transportation industry has made a tremendous progress with the AI
use. One of the most ground-breaking applications of AI is the manufacturing of autonomous
vehicles. Once this concept was merely a sci-fi fantasy but now it has transformed into a reality. The
Forbes,  an American business magazine, opines that the US logistics are embracing autonomous
trucks very fast to reap the benefits of AI in this field. According to a Mckinsey report, 65 percent
global goods transportation happens through trucks. And with autonomous trucks emerging on the
scene, maintenance and administration expenses are likely to plummet to 45 percent. Another
transportation problem people face on daily basis, traffic congestion, is going to witness solutions
through AI, as sensors and cameras embedded on roads are going to help collect the minute traffic
details to assist commuters avoid congestion, seeking alternative routes. Further valuable insights
like traffic predictions can be gleaned from this fast data processing to help build efficient roads and
viable alternative routes. Commuters can have important details like traffic predictions, accidents or
road blockages, which will save many lives. It shows AI has a vital role to play in transportation
industry.

 
 Likewise, applications of AI in the agriculture sector to help enhance agricultural yield is not only
unprecedented but also marvelous. Companies are already developing and programming
autonomous robots to handle essential agricultural tasks such as harvesting crops on a huge scale
and faster pace than human laborers used to do in the past. Various companies are leveraging
computer-vision and deep-learning algorithms to process data captured by drones and software-
based technology to monitor crop and soil health issues. A Berlin-based agricultural tech
startup, PEAT, has developed a deep learning application called, Plantix, that reportedly identifies
potential defects and nutrient deficiencies in the soil. Analysis of the soil and its efficiency is
conducted through software algorithms which correlate particular foliage patterns with certain soil
defects, plant pests and diseases to deduce data used for soil treatment to increase its cultivability
and yield per acre. It means AI is going to bring an agricultural revolution.

 Similarly, AI has made remarkable achievements in the space industry, too. Artificial intelligence and
robotics deployed to monitor certain areas for hazardous environments, armed conflicts or space
hazards are providing real-time information. Satellites equipped with AI are able to conduct 24/7
observation, supplying information to save people from alerting them not to enter unsafe or risky
spots. The data collected and fed back to robots with artificial intelligence helps them process and
decide to save human lives. Satellites are also helping in urban planning through monitoring of the
climatic conditions in the region. Then this monitoring is used to help detect viable options for road
and sewerage construction. This is how, artificial intelligence help minimize traffic, and congestion
through its use in space industry.

Furthermore, AI equipped tools are quickly becoming the part of businesses, proving their utility to
businessmen. Customer-relationship management (CRM) systems are engaged in gathering
customer data across multiple communication channels such as email, phone and social media to
help improve, and then automate marketing, and sales processes. Platforms, like sales force, have
begun implementing AI that helps small business owners analyze customer feedback from those
communication channels, and then automatically adjust marketing, and lead generation strategies
based on the information provided through this system. Both product and service-based small
businesses are also using chatbots on their websites to initiate customer communication, and help
them answering their questions. Not only the AI tools help streamline the hiring and on-boarding
process, but it also acquires feedback from new employees about how human resources (HR)
process improvement can help impact a company’s bottom-line. Not only this helps reduce time
spent during the hiring process, it also increases the number of quality applicants for a company,
and saves HR time on the back end, cutting down on answering employees’ questions. In short, AI
has a business revolution within the businesses and integration of different sections, providing real
utility to the businessmen.

 Lastly, artificial intelligence hast emerged from nowhere; rather it has always been part of the pop
culture in the shape of sci-fi movies like Star Wars,  Avengers,  The Terminator, and  I, Robot. Its real
evolution has now convinced the media industry professionals that it is the next media revolution.
They are of the view that it will improve productivity, offering a competitive advantage through
automating various tasks such as breaking down scripts, storyboarding, generating shot-lists,
creating schedules, and managing movie budgets. As AI-based softwares automatically sync group
recorded clips, it is estimated that the day when the AI will be a content generator is not far.

AI, however, is being used more sparingly in games than any other field to control non-player
characters (NPCs). In fact, NPCs react to a player’s movement and actions are due to the use of AI.
For example, in a first-person shooter, NPCs shoot a player and retreat after sensing an attack. In
latest games, the involvement of AI has become even more pervasive. Not only it analyzes a player’s
actions to predict their future moves, it also identifies models and changes in a gamer’s behavior in
specific scenarios. Seeing this intrusion in gaming industry, NPCs have been created to adapt to a
player’s behavior even in vast open-world games. This is how AI has made video games more
interesting and challenging than the previous games.

These highlighted AI merits demonstrate its bright future in the situation when giants like Mark
Zuckerberg have stated, “AI is a boon bestowed upon us and it will positively affect over lives in
multiple ways.” Not everybody agrees to this tech-savvy innovator. Contrary to his statement, Elon
Musk, another tech innovator, argues, “AI will undermine our freedom and security and be
detrimental to the survival of the human race in the not so distant future.” This categorial statement
by a futuristic innovator highlights challenges that AI is going to pose to the human race in the shape
of its demerits.

Firstly, AI poses a serious challenge through its invasion of human privacy, and exploitation of the
information gathered about individuals. Given its pervasive intrusion in general life, it is able to trace
and analyze each move of a person, for cameras installed at every other place in cities use facial
recognition algorithms. Using almost the same AI tools, social media, through its autonomous-
powered algorithms, is also proving extremely effective in target marketing, and selling.
Investigations are still afoot to work out the fault of Cambridge Analytica which used the information
from 50 million Facebook users to impact the results of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections. The case
of U.K.’s Brexit vote also illustrates AI’s power for social manipulation. By spreading data to people
known through algorithms, and private information, AI targets them, and reveals data disregard of
the personal consent or validity of the data retrieved, or obtained. Briefly putting it, AI is posing a
serious challenge to human privacy, and personal identification information.

Secondly, as machines are taking over majority of the manual work, there will be time when there is
very less manual work left for human beings, triggering a mass unemployment. And this is already
happening on industrial scale that artificial intelligence-based systems, and chatbots are  taking e-
commerce industry by storm. While many jobs may open due to the use of AI with predictions that
there will be new openings, and new job portfolios, it seems that machine learning and machine
intelligence is going to take over human jobs more than it is expected. Despite these misgivings, it
may seem exaggeration, yet it is true that AI is going to play an important role in executing tasks,
and processes in a better way that it has already caused a polemic over whether it will impact
human-centered jobs and capabilities in the workplace or not. As AI progresses further, it is believed
that it will steadily and inevitably take over large sectors of the workforce, and cause mass-scale
unemployment, resulting in social unrest.
 

Thirdly, while AI presents tremendous opportunities, people are uncertain of its likely impacts, and
are picturing possible worst-case scenarios, including complete overtake of the human affairs, and
incapacitation of human abilities. Experts, researchers and scientists often issue warning statements
that we, as human beings, are creating a new god that can either be merciful and good, or vicious
and evil. According to AI researchers, machines are predicted to be better than us in translating
languages by 2024, writing high-school essays by 2026, driving a truck by 2027, working in retail
shops by 2031, writing a bestselling book by 2049 and doing a surgery by 2053. In fact, it seems that
all human jobs will become automated within the next 120 years. In this scenario, it is likely that AI
enabled machines are going to replace human beings.

Fourthly, since AI algorithms are man-made, they can have built-in bias inserted into the algorithms
intentionally or inadvertently. If AI algorithms are built with a bias, or the data is compromised, it is
certainly the case that the results are biased. This reality of biased or compromised data could lead
to unintended consequences like the ones seen with discriminatory recruiting algorithms, and
Microsoft’s Twitter chatbot that became racist at times. As companies build AI algorithms, they need
to develop data, and insert it responsibly to keep it stay within human ability to handle, and control
it. In short, there must not be intentional ,or inadvertent data insertion into machines through AI
algorithms.

 Fifthly, AI has led human beings to increase the speed of human performed tasks, and in some
cases, it even exceeds our abilities. With automation, nefarious acts such as phishing, delivery of
viruses to softwares, and manipulation of AI operated systems seem to become difficult for humans
to control that there will really a very short time to do damage-control caused by such acts. Similarly,
there may be new AI-enabled form of terrorism to deal with due to the expansion of autonomous
drones, and the introduction of robotic swarms to remotely attacks, or the delivery of disease
through nano-robots. The law enforcement and defense organizations will need to adjust to the
potential threat these scenarios pose. It will take time, and extensive human reasoning to determine
the best way to prepare for a future with even more AI applications to ensure that though there is a
potential for adverse impacts with its further adoption, it is minimized as much as possible.

Concluding this seemingly comparative debate of AI merits and demerits, it seems AI is a human
thirst for more knowledge. Man began his journey from hunting and gathering and ended up with
industrialization and computerization. But that did not stop him there; the passion to excel had been
a dominant driver. The AI idea, a product of computer science and its applications, has taken the first
stride of being used in things such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and
translation between languages. The second stride is certainly going to be unprecedent. However, a la
any other technology, it has its merits and demerits. AI has brought improvements, and
upgradations in the medical field in preventing heart attacks and providing personalized health
monitoring. Along with that, it has helped boost economy, and reduce disastrous impacts of climate
change. Transportation, agriculture, space and entertainment industries have witnessed widespread
transformations. However, as stated that with the perks comes the perils, the biggest dilemma
people facing is the machines dominating human beings. Recent cases of the invasion into privacy,
and manipulation of private data through AI has spread ripples among the public, causing fears that
if such things happen with inbuilt bias, it may lead to unimaginably disastrous consequences.
Regardless of its merits and demerits, the truth is AI has taken us where we are between the devil
and deep sea. However, as Stephen Hawking, an English physicist and AI professional, has said,
“Computers will overtake humans with AI within the next 100 years. When that happens, we need to
make sure the computers have goals aligned with ours.” However, it is yet to be seen how AI
professionals meet the goals set by them through AI enabled systems in the next few years, and how
they control the ensuing issues.