Suppose a company like Deloitte becomes dependent on AI for preparing reports that will ultimately influence government policies, which in turn affect the common person on the street. In that case, AI is not a helpful tool but a malaise. The situation at Deloitte had been so bad in the referred case that the company had to refund the Australian government! It must be noted that Deloitte is one of the Big Four!
Most companies are indeed providing numerous artificial intelligence tools to improve the productivity of the workers, and it is a good and wise decision. The use of AI is good towards this end. However, if, unfortunately, AI makes workers complacent, lazy and sometimes over-dependent on AI, then it is a very risky proposition. The problem is that AI uses the data that is available on the web, and consultancy is not about some kind of generalisation of task, but customised solutions. So what was done at Deloitte was not only completely unprofessional and unacceptable but also unethical.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a boon as well as a bane for humanity. There are numerous benefits that AI offers to the world. Those benefits are so multifaceted that they cannot be counted. But at the same time, there are so many risks that might make the world a worse place to live or even pose an existential risk to humanity! Those risks of AI include bias and discrimination, misinformation, privacy risks, job displacement, cybersecurity threats and unintended catastrophic consequences of advanced genetic AI, which is self-sustaining. Not only this, but AI do have huge environmental consequences for the world and the mindless chase of AI may prove to be a wild goose chase for humanity.
Human civilisation has invented two most important tools to help, which may end up replacing their role in the value chain. First, they created machines which replaced the physical power of humans. And now, this time, AI will replace the mental and intellectual ability of humans! AI is the first tool that humans have created in their history that can think independently of their creators. This fact may make AI an unintended problem for humanity.
Apart from the above-mentioned risks, I am also sure that the AI is not environmentally sustainable. There are news reports that suggest that electricity consumption has significantly increased across organisations and the cities where the data centres are situated because of indiscriminate use and access to databases. Electric vehicles are expected to create only a bigger environmental problem for human civilisation, for which humans would finally find a solution, but AI gives the sense and feeling of those science fiction that have been used for image building of the US enterprise.
If this remains the trend, would it prove to be a boon for humanity or a blow to humanity?
Rajeev K Upadhyay
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