Starting from the mid-20th century, we have been working hard to try to develop intelligence for machines. This means that we are giving the capability to machines to think for themselves. Finally, after years of researching and creating algorithms, we have finally been able to give machines the ability to decide for themselves. This is called artificial intelligence, also known as AI. The uses of AI vary widely, from agriculture to marketing to healthcare systems and much more. Even though AI will be a large part of our innovative world coming forward, some people think that this will destroy the usefulness of humans and ruin the way we live. I think that they are absolutely wrong and I think that AI will be a contributing factor to the growth of humanity. They will increase efficiency throughout our day-to-day lives, create hundreds of thousands of useful jobs and could be a huge player when it comes to saving lives.

I want to start off by saying that AI will certainly help our efficiency throughout our daily lives. One colossal application of AI is to increase efficiency in environments such as factories. I previously worked with a company named Raven Telemetry to help them introduce and integrate their AI product into factories and workplaces. Using their technology, they can detect deficiencies in machines and workers throughout the factory in real time. Once the problem has been detected, managers can then solve the problem by either fixing the machines or moving a worker to another area. I think that this will improve the productivity of factories and enable them to produce more units, which would increase sales and profits for companies. AI can also be found in our homes, which many people actually do not realize. Some frequent AI machines include Siri, Alexa, Cortana and Google Home. These are used by more than 44 million people in their households at least once a month. They can help us simplify our arduous lives by performing tasks such as creating grocery lists, setting timers, setting alarms, turning on and off lights and even tell hilarious jokes to make someone’s day. I have a Google Home Mini at home, and I use it to turn lights on and off, set alarms and I also use it as a speaker. I strongly believe that it has improved my quality of life. Just imagine if one day you are feeling feeble and you are feeling so sick that you cannot even get up from your bed to set an alarm for the next day. If you have a Google Home, for example, you can say, “Hey Google, set an alarm for 7:00 am”. That’s it. If your alarm does not go off, you would be showing up late for work. That would just be embarrassing, would it not? You might get fired for showing up late, who knows? Do not worry, if that ever happens, you won’t have to wait long to find another job, because AI is one reason why the number of jobs are growing.

The second reason why AI will contribute to the growth of humanity is because it will create millions of convenient jobs for people. The more people can work, the more they can contribute towards a country’s economy and add onto it. It is estimated by the year 2022, there will be approximately 50 million new jobs created because of the rapid development and evolution of AI. There are millions of people in loathsome living conditions, and if we were able to give them the opportunities, we could lift millions of people out of financial struggles. The average income for a typical American varies around the $50 000 mark. If we were to increase the number of jobs, then the average income per American would also increase. Imagine not knowing where your next meal is going to come from, not knowing where you are going to sleep during the night and not knowing what could happen to you tomorrow. You could potentially die because of hunger or natural causes. Although, AI actually has the awesome potential to help save people’s lives.

Finally, AI will help us to save thousands of lives. Nowadays, AI is so powerful that they are able to detect diseases by themselves before doctors can. Also, not only can they detect them before doctors, but they can also correctly diagnose them before doctors. In the USA, between 250 000 and 450 000 deaths occur every year because of misdiagnosis. Human errors account for the third most deaths in the USA. What if we were to use AI instead of doctors to diagnose patients correctly? I would not want my friends or family members dying because of someone else’s evitable mistake. Another common way people die is because of car accidents. Almost 40 000 deaths occur every year because of these car crashes. What if autonomous vehicles were to come into play? I am currently doing a study on autonomous vehicles, and AI is the biggest component of such vehicles.Many algorithms are used throughout an autonomous vehicle to detect objects and decide when it is safe to proceed and when it is not safe to proceed. These decisions make up the intelligence of an autonomous vehicle and allow the vehicle to perform actions. It is estimated that once autonomous vehicles are integrated into society, they will help save more than 600 000 lives between the years 2035 and 2045. Just imagine the impact autonomous vehicles could have on our lives. On a side note, it would be pretty cool to ride in a vehicle without zero human input. When I’m older, I would love to own a company like Uber which uses autonomous cars only. Unfortunately, with pros comes cons, and AI can unfortunately be a bad thing for several reasons.

So, how does AI work in the first place? This blog would take forever for you to read if I went too in-depth, but basically it works by taking in hundreds or thousands of sample data, then makes a decision based on the data provided. Who is feeding the data to these machines? That right, humans. What do we often tend to do? Be biased. So, a huge concern for people opposing AI is biased data. People who design AI can input data which favours one outcome over another. The data can be manipulated specifically to be discriminative. The data being inputted can be biased depending on the people who feed the AI with the data. If they are being discriminative, they can change the outcome of the result, which will ruin the purpose of using AI. On the contrary, AI is being developed to not be biased towards certain results by providing the least biased data. Everything has its pros and cons, but it is the severity of the pros and cons which are a factor when making choices. I think that the pros of AI are more beneficial than the cons are more harmful. What would happen if you were of a certain gender or race, and you were to go into a court and you were given an additional jail sentence because of it? So, we want AI to be the most efficient as possible with the least bias.

Another problem that some people have discovered with AI are the ethics behind it. Unfortunately, even in the enjoyable world we are living in, there are also atrocious people who do unacceptable things. What if AI was to fall into the wrong hands? What if there were detrimental organizations using AI to impact the world negatively? One example that doubters have brought up is that terrorist groups could use AI to detect people of a certain characteristic in order to exterminate them. Unfortunately, this could be possible once AI becomes a prevalent thing in our world. Why can’t there be laws on AI? Once smartphones and the World Wide Web became integral to our daily lives, governments stepped up to create rules and regulations regarding technology use. Why can’t we just create laws on AI just like we created laws on the proper use of technology? I think that this would be the perfect idea to stop awful people and organizations from impacting the world negatively and for people to stop opposing AI.

After going through the pros and cons, I still believe that AI will be a contributing factor to the growth of humanity. We will certainly increase efficiency in our daily lives, whether it is in workplaces, factories or even inside our homes. Millions of people use AI every single day at least once without even realizing. AI has the insane potential to create millions of jobs in the near future. This can limit financial struggles for a rapidly growing population. An addition to the number of jobs can also benefit a country’s economy as the income tax goes directly to the government. AI also has the capability of saving valuable lives. Misdiagnosis of diseases and car accidents are two of the countless ways people die unnecessarily. If we can diagnose diseases faster and more efficiently as well as prevent redundant car accidents, we can help save millions of lives each year. Although it is possible that AI could be altered to be biased and can be used to harm the world, the pros heavily outweigh the cons and therefore will be a tremendous addition to our world.