Artificial Intelligence: Ethical Implications

INTRODUCTION

Over the year, there has been a vital need for human development. The quest for subsequent development
has made man to explore and employ many means for its actualization.

Along history, technology has become more explorative in developing and advancing a lot of things that
gear towards improving the life of man in the society; which one of these is Artificial intelligence.

AI is a field of science that has recently developed in the 21st century world. It is an intelligence that has
been increasing rapidly and has sparked both hope and fear about its impact in the society.

As the use of AI continues to expand it is important to consider the potential impact of this technology on
various aspects of human life. However, here are all you need to know concerning AI (Artificial
intelligence).

MEANING AND BRIEF HISTORY OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial intelligence is a field of science concerned with building computers and machines that can
reason, learn and act in such a way that would normally require human intelligence or that involves data
whose scale exceeds what human can analyze. It is the intelligence of machine as opposed to that of
humans.

Artificial intelligence actually dates back to 1950s when the term “artificial intelligence” was first coined
by the computer scientist John McCarthy. The roots of AI goes back to the work of ancient Greek
philosophers like Aristotle and Plato, who pondered the nature of the mind and what it means to be
intelligent. Fast forward to the 20 th century, and scientists like Alan Turing and Marvin Minsky were
working on early AI systems, finally, in the 21 st century, the field has explored with huge advancement in
enormous areas.

TYPES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

There are four main type of artificial intelligence.

1. Reactive machines: Reactive machine are AI system that has no memory and are task specific,
meaning that an input always delivers the same output. Example; Beat at chess by IBM’s
supercomputer, deep blue etc.

2. Limited memory: This type of AI learns from the past and builds experiential knowledge by
observing actions or data. This type of AI uses historical, observational data in combination with
 preprogrammed information to make predictions and perform complex classification tasks. For
example, self-driving cars

3. Theory of mind: Theory of mind AI does not currently exist, but research is ongoing into its
possibilities. It describes AI that can emulate the human mind and has decision-making
capabilities equal to that of a human, including recognizing and remembering emotions and
reacting in social situations as a human would.

4. Self-aware: Self-aware AI describes a mythical machine that is aware of its own existence and
has the intellectual and emotional capabilities of a human. At this moment, self-aware AI does
not currently exist.

APPLICATION

Artificial intelligence (AI) like any other powerful technology has been used in applications to
alleviate certain problems throughout industry and academia. AI, like electricity or computers, is
a general-purpose technology that has a multitude of applications. It has been used in fields of
language translation, image recognition, credit scoring, e-commerce and other domains.

THE RELEVANCE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO THE SOCIETY

Undoubtedly, AI has played a crucial impact in the society and its ubiquitous influence has
contributed immensely on the wellbeing of the society. Some of the areas it has contributed to
include:

ELIMINATES HUMAN ERROR AND RISK

“To err is human…” – Alexander Pope, Enlightenment poet.

Everyone makes mistakes on occasion. That’s not always a bad thing, but when it comes to
producing consistent results, it certainly can be. Using AI to complete tasks, particularly
repetitive ones, can prevent human error from tainting an otherwise perfectly useful product or
service.

24/7 AVAILABILITY

AI programs are available at all times, whereas humans work 8 hours a day. Machines can work
all through the day and night, and AI-powered Chabot can provide customer service even during
off-hours. This can help companies to produce more and provide a better customer experience
than humans could provide alone.

UNBIASED DECISION MAKING

Humans disagree and allow their biases to leak through in their decisions all the time. All humans
have biases, and even if we try and solve for them, they sometimes manage to sneak through the
cracks. So AI algorithm has been trained using unbiased datasets and tested for programming
bias, the program will be able to make decisions without the influence of bias. That can help
provide more equity in things like selecting job applications, approving loans, or credit
applications.

REPETITIVE JOBS

Even the most interesting job in the world has its share of mundane or repetitive work. This could
be things like entering and analyzing data, generating reports, verifying information, and the like.
Using an AI program can save humans from the boredom of repetitive tasks, and save their
energy for work that requires more creative energy.

COST REDUCTION

As we addressed above, AI can work around the clock, creating more value in the same day as a
human worker. And since AI can help to take over manual and tedious tasks, it frees up workers
for higher-skilled tasks. That, ultimately, creates more value for the end-user or consumer.

DISADVANTAGES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

High Costs

The ability to create a machine that can simulate human intelligence is no small feat. It requires
plenty of time and resources and can cost a huge deal of money. AI also needs to operate on the
latest hardware and software to stay updated and meet the latest requirements, thus making it
quite costly.

No Creativity

A big disadvantage of AI is that it cannot learn to think outside the box. AI is capable of learning
over time with pre-fed data and past experiences, but cannot be creative in its approach. A classic
example is the bot Quill who can write Forbes earning reports. These reports only contain data
and facts already provided to the bot. Although it is impressive that a bot can write an article on
its own, it lacks the human touch present in other Forbes articles.

Unemployment

One application of artificial intelligence is a robot, which is displacing occupations and

For instance, robots are frequently utilized to replace human resources in manufacturing
businesses in some more technologically advanced nations like Japan. This is not always the case,
though; as it creates additional opportunities for humans to work while also replacing humans in
order to increase efficiency.

Make Humans Lazy

AI applications automate the majority of tedious and repetitive tasks. Since we do not have to
memorize things or solve puzzles to get the job done, we tend to use our brains less and less
which will be a problem in the future. This addiction to AI will cause problems especially among
the youths.

CONCLUSION

Undoubtedly, the very intention behind the invention of these AI machines was to ease and
deputize man in his daily living of which it has contributed immensely, along the line, these
intentions has faced many challenges that made its aim to be defeated, thwarted both by the
inventors and users which include our youths and that has given rise to some negative outcomes
of these auxiliaries. So, it is pertinent to note that as we create and use these machines, we must
consider the ethical implications it poses to humanity.

As we move into a world where machines are capable of performing many of the same tasks as
human, we must ask ourselves: what is the purpose of socialization, education, employment, etc.?
What role should technology play in it? Can we create a future that balance efficiency with
human values? Or are we doomed to become mere cogs in machine, no longer capable of self-
determination or independent thought? The Youth should re-engineer themselves by involvement
in self- employment and bear in mind that innovation is also a vital key to survival.

In conclusion, notwithstanding the ubiquitous influence of AI, we ought to bear in mind that it is
not all about technology or efficiency but what it means to be human and what we value as a
society and ensure that these essential qualities are not lost in a world increasingly dominated by
artificial intelligence.