The effects of the evolution of artificial intelligence on society

As the world progresses, the focus on development has shifted to AI which has been advanced such that it can act as a voice assistant on phones, predict users’ risk of illnesses and even serve to further better information systems in communal places such as the library.

In May 2018, when Google executive, Sundar Pichai announced the latest features that would be rolled out, he reemphasized that more importance is being placed on AI developments and not just mobile. This means that AI developments have expanded into areas outside mobile such as healthcare. AI can estimate the risk of health predicaments such as cardiac arrest by checking the user’s eye pictures. A further example of how AI is being integrated into healthcare is shown from how an AI is being developed by the National University Health System (NUHS). The AI, also known as Discover AI, employs a biometric recognition that tells hospital staff of patients who are in critical condition so as to speed up the patients’ treatment. Discover AI also gathers patients’ records and using that can perform tasks such as even diagnosing diseases such as appendicitis and also estimate the chance of patients being readmitted to the hospital.

AI increases productivity in different environments AI has been designed so finely such that it is capable of being integrated into any workplace environment. One such environment is the bank. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC Bank) has developed an AI that can be used to trace clients’ behavioral pattern and then detect for signs of crimes such as fraud. Once the AI has been properly implemented into the bank, it can increase productivity as if the task were to be done by an analyst, it would take at least an hour whereas if the task was completed by the AI, it would only take a moment. AI can also be integrated into places such as the library by substituting fundamental search engines and adding more concise features such as providing citations. In fact, the University of Rhode Island has already capitalized on this and added a computer lab to their own library. This will increase productivity in the library as its prowess as a place for patrons to look for information is heightened. A few industries such as healthcare and transportation will be impacted by AI in the next 10 years. For healthcare, an AI has already been produced to make diagnoses for patients and calculate the risk of patients being readmitted. And for transport, smart cars or self-driving cars have been built and are able to drive safely over a long distance with minimal accidents.

As AIs become more advanced, so does how automated human jobs become. McKinsey, a managing consulting company, published a paper in 2016 that concluded that current technology can automate up to 45% of tasks that are conducted by humans. It was also concluded that a majority of occupations could have up to 30% of their duties be handled by automation. Majority of these jobs are often unskilled and are taken up by workers with basic level skills or limited knowledge of skills. And since so many of these jobs are very likely to be taken over by AI, many of these workers become unemployed. This will even bring up the issue of having to train these workers just so that they can find employment elsewhere.

Conclusion

In conclusion, AI will be very beneficial and effective to humans as AI is very efficient and can operate continuously. AIs are flexible and can be integrated into and enhance the productivity of places and industries. However, AIs also have their disadvantages such as causing job losses by taking over jobs that can be easily automated. This leads to people becoming extremely wary of AIs. It is recommended that the government, businesses and most of all AI developers execute the following actions: (1) create more jobs to ensure fewer job losses (2) develop AIs that are meant to cover for manpower issues rather than replace the current workforce (3) come up with more courses that are meant for workers in the workforce to learn more skills.