The dangers of artificial intelligence had been a discussion for years. If AI could replace humans, whether it will cause extinction, does it evolve into something more intelligent than we can control, all have been there in our minds.
So, it makes sense to write an article regarding the matter to see how much of a threat AI possess.
AI has grown more popular and capable in the last couple of years. Now, the tech, adept at deep data analysis, can perform beyond one’s imagination. Hence, the opposition is also working non-stop to let their voices known.
While we are not debating how AI will replace humans or reign supreme, there is a need to address the potential dangers associated with the tech, if any. And we are not the only concerned party. Famous global personalities such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have already warned against the widespread influence of AI technology. Hence, it is time for us to shed light on the few dangers that AI might contribute to directly or indirectly if we continue our association.
Table of contents
Is AI Dangerous?
AI is dangerous in the wrong hands. In the good hands, it is safe. It is a general explanation for almost any inversion. AI as it is cannot do any harm, but if used incorrectly, either intentionally or unknowingly (it doesn’t matter), it can be catastrophic.
Many people including Elon Musk warned us about AI.
Mark my words, AI is far more dangerous than nukes.
Elon Musk
12 dangers of AI
Given below are 12 dangers that stem from the use of AI. Take a look.
1. It could replace humans
Obviously, human replacement is the biggest concern when we think about rapidly improving AI technology. Many jobs have already been replaced by AI, and the number keeps growing day by day.
So, it is not hidden that, obviously, many of us are going to lose our jobs given that an artificial intelligence system could do it more efficiently and accurately.
But, there is a catch. Not all jobs can be done by a robot, at least not in the near future. For example, a psychologist cannot be replaced by an AI system. It will be a lot harder to develop an AI bot that could think and act like a psychologist. We discussed this problem in detail – can AI replace humans?
2. Risk of unemployment
First and foremost, there is a pressing issue of skilled labor losing jobs instead of AI. As with industrialization, more and more businesses would start adopting AI-powered smart robots to do manual tasks in factories, driving the employment rate to new lows.
AI helps businesses in a lot of ways. From the very basic management to the advanced workflows, AI has been growing in importance for every medium to large scale businesses out there. The question is, can businesses survive without actual humans.
Also, AI is capable of handling most repetitive and mundane tasks. Thus, even entry-level corporate jobs would not be safe from its influence. And as we have already seen, AI is great at self-learning. It can even create art. Thus, it is also a possibility that AI can go after creative jobs or important positions such as lawyers, teachers, and such.
AI has already started interfering with the healthcare and education sectors. Hence, it is not farfetched to imagine a robot as a teacher. An estimate shows that a minimum of 85 million such jobs would become obsolete with the advent of AI technology.
3. Social manipulation
Social manipulation isn’t anything new. With increasing social media platforms and connectivity options, we have already witnessed how easy it is to manipulate common sentiment and dissipate fake news. However, with the current method, it is still feasible to get a hold of the perpetrator.
But with AI, it is a forgone concern as the social manipulation would get done by programs that are good at self-learning. As such, recent reports on the potential harm of AI has reported social manipulation as one of the top threat. Online media and news are even more unlikely to filter out such manipulation as disinformation or fake news. It wouldn’t be something that could get easily noticed.
With the huge amount of data traveling on the web, it is humanly impossible to fact-check everything. People hardly know real from fake, especially if it’s coming from a trustworthy source. Thus, AI has the potential for manipulation.
4. Biased algorithms
AI works within rigid parameters. And the output is strictly decided by the input, based on logic, and adhering to the rules set by the algorithm. Hence, AI is supposedly unbiased in its results. But we forget that the person setting the algorithm and providing input is human. Thus, any AI working with a biased algorithm will justify such logic based on our bias.
People famously refer to this kind of situation as garbage in, garbage out. If the data is tainted, how come the results would be clean? Hence, AI isn’t a fail-safe decision-maker. Any discriminatory system, fed with biased data, would result in bias.
5. Deteriorating ethics and goodwill
Tech experts, journalists, activists, billionaires, politicians, and even religious figures are ringing the bell against AI based on the fact that it is a gaping hole of socio-economic failure that needs proper supervision or oversight for development. And this opposition increased after the ChatGPT era.
ChatGPT is one of the best AI chatbots that can carry out human interactions flawlessly. But sadly, many used the tool for getting out of written assignments, raising questions regarding academic creativity and integrity. If we can get our job done by using AI, why are we getting paid? Hence, AI has also created a debate on ethics and goodwill.
6. Financial crisis
The financial industry has already embraced AI technology. But is it really for the betterment of the industry? What if our next financial crisis was due to algorithm trading? While it is true that AI algorithms are pure and unmarred by human judgment or emotion, they do lack actual context and fail to see the interconnectedness of markets, and often fail to take into consideration non-binary factors such as fear or trust.
While such AI might be great at predicting trade, it is bound to fail as it can never judge human reaction. For example, AI predicts the shares of a company to rise based on its B/L. But the next day, a rumor starts traveling around. Now, AI will never take such rumors or their effect into the equation.
Because, for it, the data and facts are absolute. However, panicked investors might take this rumor seriously and start a downward trend by selling stocks. While the importance of artificial intelligence cannot be neglected, we should account for such flaws.
7. Lacks transparency
AI systems are built with neural networks. These networks serve as the engine for the program, outputting the necessary power to drive the AI. But these complex yet interconnected node systems are not capable of indicating any motivation. Hence, users can only concern themselves with the input and output, without knowing how the actual process takes place.
The system while good for other industries, won’t be able to work where total transparency is a must, such as in military or surgical operations where one has to trace even the smallest of the decision made and find out the motivation behind them, as human lives are at stake.
8. Legal liability
There is still much to discuss regarding the legality of AI. As the program keeps on getting self-aware, do we make laws to bind AI themselves or their creators? Who would be responsible for any damages done due to any mistakes an AI makes? We can argue that since AI is smart and thinks on its own, it should shoulder the legal repercussions, but is it feasible?
9. AI can be influenced by giant corporates
There are already giant corporates that have a great hold on our data. Hence, it is no surprise that their AI would be far more accurate and powerful. But then, the question remains, won’t these techs try to have an influence on their creations? Hence, there is a chance that if left unsupervised, a powerful tool will end up in the hands of a small group of people. “The winner takes all” is not a myth in the internet era. And as these companies increase their hold on data and algorithms, chances are the resultant AI will be highly commercial in favor of these tech giants.
10. Smart weaponry
Autonomous weaponry might sound like a great idea, but it isn’t necessarily so. Many experts have pointed out the risks of appointing AI as a controller for weaponry. And we are not only talking about incendiary weaponry but also technology.
Today, a powerful drone with a high-quality camera is readily available for private use. Now, anyone with enough brilliance can install AI software with facial recognition on the drone to target a specific person. Furthermore, if we allow AI to intrude in war zones, what’s next? Do we also allow them the power to decide the life and death of another human being?
11. Loss of human skills
We are getting further and further away from humanity as we keep relying on technology. Who among us can even light a fire without using any gadgets anymore, or read the night sky for navigation? Can we even hunt or fish without using technology? We even rely on machines for wars.
Now, with powerful AI that can read, write and draw, chances are humans might also lose the motivation for writing beautiful stories or making art. Who will write poems or amazing movie scripts? Yes, an AI can easily do all these tasks but at what cost? As we delve further into technology, we are losing more and more human skills.
While we don’t argue that smart technology has made our lives easier, hasn’t it also made us quite dumb? We no longer try to remember things thanks to smart calendars, memos, and whatnot. Forget to remember phone numbers or handwritten copies. Technology can even write for us in handwritten fonts. Imagine suddenly losing all our surrounding tech, won’t we be akin to a fish on a chopping block with no skills to look after ourselves?
12. Identity theft
Even today, it is very easy to generate anyone saying anything with an identical voice. Even images can be generated using the best AI image generators to look like someone did something that they actually didn’t. Things will only progress to be worse from here.
Stealing someone’s identity will be extremely easy for any criminal. It will disrupt the law and order of every country. If the evidence in itself cannot be proven real, then how are we going to make a decision? It’s scary to think about this serious AI danger.