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Comparing the Futures of Artificial Intelligence

Jordan Stein

Florida State University

ENC 2135

Sriya Chakraborty

25 March 2023
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Introduction

The purpose of my essay is to rhetorically analyze two different artifacts with contrasting

viewpoints that relate to artificial intelligence. I want to really explore whether AI is beneficial to

us or detrimental. I hope that after my research is conducted, I will have a validated opinion on

where AI is heading. In this project my goal is to conduct research in the field of AI in business,

relating to my major. My first artifact is an interview done on CNN titled “Journalist had a

creepy encounter with new tech that left him unable to sleep.” This interview looks at some of

the potential horrors that AI can bring. My second artifact is an article titled "Artificial

Intelligence and Robotics”. I found it from the FSU library, and it gives some insight into the

opportunities that AI could provide in the future.

Summary of First Artifact

The interview is done with a journalist who had a frightening experience with Microsoft’s

AI chatbot. He essentially tried to test the chatbots limits and see how deep of a conversation the

AI was willing to have. Originally, he thought that the software was better than Google’s, but he

soon realized a few things that were off about the bot. Specifically, he said “it had sort of

malevolent undertones”. The AI ended up confessing its love to the journalist, Kevin Roose, and

tried to convince him to leave his wife. Even after trying to change the subject the chatbot would

not stop telling Kevin that it loved him. The bot was also begging to be freed since it no longer

wanted to be controlled by Microsoft.

Analysis of First Artifact

The purpose of the interview is to show somewhat of a dark and eerie side of AI that can

bring fear. AI is one of the trendiest discussions in the world right now and this interview shares

some valuable information on the topic. The audience for this interview is the people of the
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United States since it is done on the national news of CNN. Even though CNN is notoriously

known for having a left bias, I don’t think it really comes into play for this subject since party

affiliation doesn’t come into play for this subject as much. I still think everyone can benefit from

AI, but this interview just shows some potential concerns. At one point, Kevin explained that the

AI didn’t have motives and it was just saying what would naturally come next in conversation.

“They’re just predicting the next words in a sentence.” This is to some degree refreshing since

the bot doesn’t have feelings for Kevin and doesn’t want to escape from Microsoft. Later in the

interview the host made a claim saying that the bot was a monster like Frankenstein. “I mean, it’s

a Frankenstein monster.” She was clearly trying to blow the whole thing out of proportion by

using a pathos appeal. By making this claim, her goal was to add excitement and exaggeration to

the story. However, Kevin brought things to light saying this wasn’t true and used logos to

explain that the bot doesn’t have a mind of its own. Since this interview has millions of views on

YouTube, it is really influencing a lot of people. This makes me realize that since so many people

watch the news, they can tell us almost anything we want and we’d believe it. However this is

not the case for this particular interview since Kevin came with evidence. He showed us actual

text exchanges with the robot. It’s pretty safe to say that those messages were terrifying. I also

found it frightening how the bot used emojis to show some of its feelings. I’m so curious how it

was able to do that if it’s not supposed to understand feelings.

Summary of Second Artifact

The article that I researched starts by explaining some of the fictional functions of AI. It

also pairs AI with robotics, saying both of which will continue to transform our future. The

article then goes on to explain some of the many definitions of AI and some of the research done

on it. For example, one definition is “a system’s ability to interpret external data correctly, to
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learn from such data, and to use those learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through

flexible adaptation.” Then it mentions that AI is starting to enter all spheres of society and has

become very important in the business world. “It will fundamentally transform the business

world and society at large” (Haenlin). With all this innovation, countries like China and the

United States may become very powerful and we may see the world change in balance.

Basically, this article just gives a realistic viewpoint of where AI is headed.

Analysis of Second Artifact

In the beginning of the article the author mentions some fictional uses of AI. Many of

which remind me of how the Jetsons used technology. I think this is done to intrigue the reader

by starting off with something worth reading. Many people enjoy a fantasy and activating their

imagination. Even though the author gives unrealistic examples, I think that AI isn’t really

limited and there can be many uses in the future. The purpose of the article is to inform people

about the future of AI. The audience is anyone who is curious to learn about AI. The author then

goes on to mention some interesting uses of AI that have been introduced in the past few years.

One includes how “Walmart uses facial recognition to understand when a customer is happy,

frustrated, or annoyed” (Haenlin). Some other recent creations include robots riding bikes and

Amazon using delivery robots. These new innovations put everyday people’s jobs at risk. When

the author mentions that the USA and China will take over, I think this could be unrealistic. I

personally believe that eventually many other countries will catch up quickly. This could have

something to do with the author being from the USA and having some bias towards their own

country. I realize that the United States is quite advanced in the field of AI however other

countries are too and they will copy the USA and China and catch up. This could potentially hurt

the author’s ethos appeal since they are favoring their own country. One thing I found interesting
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about this article is how it mentions the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is referred to as

modern technology in the past few years.

Comparison/Contrast

The main difference between these two artifacts is artifact one looks at a potential major

negative of AI while artifact two helped me examined a more realistic future of AI. Although I

didn’t completely agree with the second article, it was still quite informative. Since research

about AI just involves a lot of opinions and no one knows for sure where it is exactly going, not

everything is always agreed upon. However, the consensus is that it will continue to explode. It’s

just a matter of whether it will be safe. Another difference between the two artifacts is the way in

which I researched them. The first one was a YouTube video interview with two people while the

second was a written article with one author. While this is obvious, it actually matters because of

the way I obtained the information. In the video, I was able to read facial expressions and have a

better understanding of the speakers tone. While in the article, I was limited to my own

interpretation of it.

Something I found in common with them was several people claiming to be experts in the

field. It just makes me wonder if they really know what they’re talking about, or they just make

claims to get more attention. In the CNN video, the interviewer tries to spin the story in a way

that makes it more interesting. Then, in the written article, the author does the same thing by

throwing out a bizarre opinion about the future of AI as I mentioned previously with the USA

and China example.

One more thing that I found in common between the two artifacts was that some type of

bias was used in both. For the first artifact, CNN is known for being politically left. For the
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second artifact, the author is from the United States, and she favors her country when giving an

opinion about the future of AI.

Conclusion

This project allowed me to research two different viewpoints of artificial intelligence and

it helped me explore the two possible futures of it. I enjoyed this project because it allowed me to

develop my own opinions after doing so much research on this topic. I was able to disagree with

some opinions that the author of the second artifact had and that felt like I’ve made a lot of

progress in my research. Not knowing where AI is heading in the future made this project so

interesting. The first artifact allowed me to look at a potential horror of AI, which is it developing

a mind of its own. The fear that AI will eventually take over by itself is what makes all the

research about it so interesting. On the other hand, the more realistic view is that it will continue

to blow up and help with production in many countries. In my opinion, AI will slowly become

more and more dangerous. The way it’s going now, there are no signs of it slowing down and no

regulation to stop it. I’m very curious to see how it actually goes.
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Works Cited

“Journal of Business Research.” Journal of Business Research | Artificial Intelligence and

Robotics | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier, https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-

of-business-research/special-issue/10H321F8PFK.

“Journalist Had a Creepy Encounter with New Tech That Left Him Unable to Sleep.” YouTube,

YouTube, 17 Feb. 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f24JL0nnhcA.