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Do the Pros of Artificial Intelligence Outweigh the Cons?

Prompt #1
The article “Do the Pros of Artificial Intelligence Outweigh the Cons?” discusses the pros and cons
of Artificial Intelligence(AI). Write an essay analyzing the pros and cons of Artificial Intelligence(AI).
Use directly quoted evidence from the article to support your response.

OR

Prompt #2
The article “Do the Pros of Artificial Intelligence Outweigh the Cons?” discusses the pros and cons
of Artificial Intelligence(AI). Write an essay arguing whether or not Artificial Intelligence(AI) should
be used. Use directly quoted evidence from the article to support your response.

Dictionary.com- Artificial Intelligence

The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human
intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between
languages.

*Note:​ The underlined words in the article link to additional readings on that topic.

Do the Pros of Artificial Intelligence Outweigh the Cons?

By: ​Annie Pettit​, Contributor
Market Research Methodologist
11/13/2017 12:18 pm ET

● Would you implement an AI system that led millions of people to feel lonelier?
● That resulted in massive unemployment?
● That perpetuated inequality and racism?

Freedom from boredom versus unemployment

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence has many benefits. It frees people from repetitive,
predictable tasks that could be more easily and safely completed by machines and AI. This would
allow people to work on tasks that depend on the human brain’s ability to handle ambiguity. However,
freeing people from basic and repetitive tasks could mean​ ​massive job losses​ for factory workers,
vehicle drivers, retail salespeople, restaurant workers, and many more. Some of those people will be
able to turn to alternative careers but a large segment of people could be permanently out of work.

Voice assistants like​ ​Alexa​ ​and Siri have made finding restaurants, setting alarms, streaming music,
reading books, answering predictable questions, and many other trivial tasks far easier and quicker –
particularly for people whose hands might be otherwise occupied or who are​ ​disabled​. Those saved
minutes could result in more personal or family time. However, they could also result in job losses as
the need for personal assistants decreases, and workers are able to accomplish much more in their
limited time. The​ ​slow death of the secretary​ that we’ve seen over the past few years will only
intensify.

Improved medical diagnoses versus lack of trust and responsibility

AI has proven its worth in the medical arena, sometimes​ ​performing better than human doctors​.
Among many other examples, AI has demonstrated more accurate incision cutting, development of
vastly quicker medical treatment plans, and better predictions of heart attacks and strokes.​ ​One
researcher shares​ a story where the error rate of human diagnosis was 3.5% compared to 7.5% for
the AI, but together the error rate was brought down to 0.5%.

But ethical issues arise here as well. When should medical specialists trust their gut over
technologies that are slowly starting to out-perform them? When is the doctor to blame for trusting AI
over their own diagnosis, or vice versa, only to find their decision was incorrect? When do we pursue
sanctions for incorrect decisions?

Increased impartiality versus perpetuation of bias

AI has the amazing potential to reduce and even eliminate human biases such as racism, sexism,
and various forms of demographic and psychographic-based forms of hate. Supporting our legal,
educational, and social systems with AI protocols could instantly wipe out unconscious biases of even
the most sensitive, ethical people. AI technologies have already been used to set bail resulting in
much​ ​more equitable​ outcomes.

At the same time however, we now know that many of the training systems we’ve used to build our AI
technologies were founded on highly biased, racist, and sexist data. Some of these supposedly
bias-free tools have been used to predict recidivism and later found to be ​biased against black
people​. In another case, when​ ​Microsoft released Tay, a bot​, in 2017 with the intent of watching it
learn how to communicate, it learned racist ideas from internet trolls. A sense of ethical behaviour
had not been built into the system leading to horrible outcomes. Garbage in, garbage out has never
been more true.

Morality is a cultural construct not truth

Despite having positive life changing applications, the negatives mean that AI is not fully trusted.​ ​Elon
Musk​, known for​ ​disrupting the automotive market with Tesla​, has been accused of​ ​fear mongering
but he seems to genuinely worry that AI could go rogue and lead to the destruction of humanity. Bill
Gates says we shouldn’t panic over AI, but we do need to ensure that AI technologies are
implemented properly. And that means ensuring the technologies are ethical.

Unfortunately, there is a serious problem with creating ethical AI technologies. There is​ ​no single view
of ethics​ and morality that spans all countries, cultures, religions, and people. Cultural norms, which
greatly impact morality, vary widely from country to country and group to group.

What one group firmly believes to be ethical behaviour could easily be seen as by others as biased.
Where some groups place more value on the individual, others place higher value on families and
teams. Where some groups place more value on economic success, others place higher value on
personal health and well-being. Some groups of people believe the death punishment is morally
acceptable. Some groups permit some, but not all, people to vote or drive or wear certain clothing.
Morality is not fixed.

There is no easy way to ensure that AI technologies are applied in ethical ways. But we can
consciously work to recognize potential problems during development and application. We can train
ourselves to be aware of when our personal beliefs adversely impact applications, of when groups of
people are unnecessarily negatively affected. We may never be able to resolve every problem but it’s
something we ought to strive for.