Our world is rapidly changing, and with that, everything is advancing to keep up to date with the current times. In this advancement, technology is constantly reaching a new peak; constantly creating new methods of making tasks easier, especially how we accomplish things in our daily lives.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a tool that has been manufactured for this very purpose. It works to create, generate and complete anything that is asked of it. Society has implemented AI into almost every aspect technologically. It has drastically advanced to fit new demands and continues to. However, with the continual advancement of it, greater risks are posed. The instability that AI could potentially bring are not being looked into enough to prevent possible future peril. Without solving current issues occurring from it, how can we continue to advance it without bringing more? Computer scientist Eliezer Yudkowsky warned, “By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.”
AI proposes multiple concerns regarding privacy and warnings of violation. Data is constantly being collected and processed into its system. Sensitive information, such as names, financials, addresses and social security numbers can easily be accessed from it by any outside source or individual. There are not any laws that restrict its accessibility or work to provide more privacy for a person. In 2021, an American technology company known as “Clearview AI” violated Canadian privacy laws by collecting over three billion photos of Canadian adults and children for mass surveillance and facial recognition against its database without their knowledge or consent of it. Federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien stated, “What Clearview does is mass surveillance and it is illegal…it is an affront to individuals’ privacy rights…”
With the additional advances that continue, there is the threat of AI taking over the job market, costing multiple individuals the instability of being left without a job. The concern stems from workers not being able to adjust soon enough to the rapid improvements of technology. Additionally, it wouldn’t be difficult for AI to replace jobs that aren’t necessarily required, such as a paralegal or travel advisor. Having AI replace these and other jobs would render all of the training that was put into them useless and a loss of years. It would leave millions of people unemployed and force them to adjust themselves into new skills and jobs in order to still have stability through an income that may or may not be enough. Since the 2000s, 1.7 million jobs have already been eliminated due to automation systems. As AI grows in the role it plays in our lives, this number is only going to increase. From this analysis, it has been predicted that AI is going to take away 85 million jobs by 2025. That is 85 million more jobs gone that will negatively impact numerous people.
AI brings multiple potential risks and impacts with its advancement. It could cause an entirely new lifestyle upon us. “I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans,” stated American mathematician Claude Shannon.
Sources:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/technology-clearview-facial-recognition-1.5899008
