Research Topic 4: AI & Automation

The fourth topic I researched was 'AI & Automation'. It is a subject that becomes increasingly relevant in our day to day lives as AI becomes more capable of doing tasks that previously required humans to operate.

Throughout the time that AI and automation have evolved, there have been points that people believed it would not be possible for them to reach. For example, AI was initially believed to be incapable of ever surpassing a chess grandmaster whilst following standard time-constraint rules, but in 1997 an AI called 'Deep Blue' achieved this. More recently, AI has made significant strides in producing good artwork, to the point one person won an art competition by using an AI art program. The developments of AI art have triggered a lot of debates in regards to:

The ethics of using art as references for the AI to learn from, without the artists permission.
Whether AI art should be allowed in competitions that aren't specifically meant for it.
The ethics of allowing AI art to create images in the likeness of copyrighted characters and people in real life (something that could be used maliciously)
How in the future, the jobs of human artists will likely be under threat, as they will be replaced by AI art programs.

Other Source: Opening The Pandora's Box of AI Art

Left: An image of the Deep Blue AI going against Garry Kasparov, a chess grandmaster.

Replacing Human Jobs

The 4th point from 'Testing What's Possible' is a concern that can apply to many jobs due to automation and AI, and already has examples of places where humans are being, and have been: phased out. Some examples of this are already noticeable in our daily lives, such as self-checkouts in supermarkets, making your orders via phone or machine at McDonalds, and automated manufacturing for many products we see and buy.

Some might argue there will always be jobs for humans, and/or that in certain tasks we will never be replaced since AI and automation will never reach that point. However there are clear examples to the contrary already, like those I mentioned. It is not just the 'jobs that nobody wants' that will be replaced, it could easily be the creative industry too. And even the argument that its only low-pay or 'undesirable' jobs that are lost, ignores that the population -and therefore demand for jobs- is growing, whilst job opportunities are not nearly growing as much, even shrinking in terms of roles where automation is able to replace them.

A comparison that was made in a Youtube Video Essay on this subject, is how horses were once a very frequently used for everyday transportation, warfare, and farming, yet now automobiles have replaced them in nearly everything, and they are practically only used for special events or kept as pets these days.

The machine/AI doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be better than a human worker for them to phase human employees out. The convenience created by machines and AI should be something we can celebrate, but I feel the current functions of society make this impossible. All it does is reduce the roles that humans can take to earn money, limiting career prospects in every industry that replaces a human with AI for a task.