Digitalization, which is currently increasingly strengthening its presence in people’s lives and becoming commonplace, has expanded the scope of human potential and destroyed age-old society activity. More than half of the world’s inhabitants use code-based systems every day owing to external information, consequently revealing unimaginable opportunities, but at the same time facing the threats.
Gradually more often in research in the latest technologies, statements about the insecurity of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems can be found. In 2015, Microsoft founder Bill Gates admitted that, in a few decades, humanity could be threatened by the overdevelopment of AI systems (Steels & Brooks, 2018).
This issue was also highlighted by people such as Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and creator of the car of the future, and theoretical physicist and popularizer of science Stephen Hawking (Steels & Brooks, 2018). Simultaneously, they also acknowledge the powerful capabilities of AI systems (Steels & Brooks, 2018). Thus, AI definitely will help people live better and have a beneficial influence on the future, whereas it is essential not to underestimate the threats and ultimately solve all the problems encountered in that respect.
Currently, there are movements, the aim of which is to bring benefits for humanity, using AI. Particularly, transhumanism’s goal is to utilize technology to fundamentally improve the human condition, body, and mind to the point where they become someone different, better than an emotional living being (Steels & Brooks, 2018). It is the philosophy, which, on the one hand, can seem intimidating or absurd. On the other hand, there is no doubt that transhumanism and, namely, AI, actually brings many advantages to humanity.
Most experts associate AI’s progress with the development of neural networks, based on the modeling of biological processes, which occur in the human brain. Impressive results are appearing owing to them in speech and image recognition, medical diagnoses, text translation, and image creation (Steels & Brooks, 2018). The changes will also affect the number of jobs throughout the world (Steels & Brooks, 2018). People will shift some of their routine job tasks to the machine, which will allow them to focus on creative work.
The technologies, which are essential in the digital health revolution, provide potentially significant opportunities to improve personalized care and drive medical research innovation. Mobile devices and health apps, e-health technologies, and smart monitoring are already allowing everyone to self-monitor their health without going to a doctor (Steels & Brooks, 2018). The role of AI will also be considerable in facilitating broad public health programs based on the vast amounts of data on personal genomes.
There is no doubt that technology is developing to make human labor more efficient, whereas excessive improvements can hurt employment. The report, released by the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, describes the impact of information technology on the workforce. According to it, in the next 10–20 years, technologies will affect virtually all types of professions (Steels & Brooks, 2018). For instance, self-driving cars can reduce the need for taxi and long-distance truck drivers (Steels & Brooks, 2018).
Furthermore, one study evaluated recent developments in AI and concluded that 47% of U.S. jobs are at high risk of being computerized (Steels & Brooks, 2018). As automation progresses, a less skilled workforce will inexorably suffer, and currently, it is necessary to think about the ways to protect them, retrain and prepare for a new life. One of the options for solving the problem of human displacement by the machine in the labor market may be online education, which will enrich the opportunities for retraining of laid-off workers.
In addition, many people use artificial intelligence methods, often without even thinking about how information systems work. Google and other search engines use innovative aspects in their work, such as data mining, semantic networks, which people first used in AI (Steels & Brooks, 2018). Word processing systems such as Microsoft Word has sophisticated language-processing capabilities (Steels & Brooks, 2018). People transmit decision making on key aspects of digital life to code-based mysterious and incomprehensible tools.
Thus, they threaten their independence and privacy by leaving these processes unchecked. Moreover, many believe that AI enhances human capabilities, but some predict the opposite: the rising dependence of people on AI will reduce their ability to think and act by themselves, without the use of automated systems (Steels & Brooks, 2018). Consequently, society should evolve independently, not relying on the transfer of solutions exclusively to AI.
To summarize, AI will have an unconditional influence on society, the economy, and relations between people in the future. Particularly, the development of AI will bring many benefits to humanity. However, individuals need to consider ethical principles for developing AI, ensuring that it progresses in a safe direction for humans.
Moreover, it is necessary to practice online education, which will enrich the opportunities for retraining of laid-off workers due to the human displacement by the machine. Apart from it, there is an important and interesting task – to evolve for each specific individual much faster than AI systems.
Reference
Steels, L., & Brooks, R. (Eds.) (2018). The artificial life route to artificial intelligence: Building embodied, situated agents. Routledge.