AI Has Its Downsides, But The Upsides Can’t Be Ignored

Artificial intelligence innovation is coming on in leaps and bounds, and already there are many people using it to help them write, draw and code. The implications of this technology have stirred up a lot of debate, and a lot has been said about the negatives that it will bring about as it powers a fresh wave of automation. 

There are significant fears around the disruption AI will cause, particularly in terms of its impact on employment. Doubtless, it seems certain that AI is going to take over a lot of tasks that were previously performed by humans, and it remains to be seen what the results of this will be. Naysayers fear AI could put millions of people out of work, while others believe it will simply free up those workers to perform more creative, higher-level works. 

Even more concerning are the warnings of the dark side of AI technology, which could potentially be misused by hackers or criminals to create bioweapons, or even decide to fight humanity itself, if it ever decides that people are a threat to its existence.

However, there’s a lot to be said about the benefits of AI, and the positive implications it might have on society, and there are a lot of them. 

Accelerated scientific discovery

If there’s one immediate benefit for AI, it’s surely going to be in scientific research. There’s almost no limit to how helpful AI can be for scientists, due to its unrivalled ability to perform calculations and explore new concepts at scale. 

Already, AI has the ability to process and analyze enormous volumes of data, thousands of times faster than any human can do. It does so with remarkable speed and efficiency, enabling human discoverers to see conclusions and relationships that they would struggle to surface by themselves. Such insights can be the key to numerous scientific breakthroughs, transforming research in everything from science to medicine, to genetics and engineering. 

Examples of these tools include the Virtual Scientific Companion, known as VISION, which was created by the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory to help researchers carry out more efficient experiments and save time on monotonous tasks. 

New drugs and medical treatments

AI can help save lives by helping us to discover new kinds of medicines and treatments for currently incurable diseases and other crippling healthcare problems. For instance, algorithms can be designed to design and analyze new molecules and proteins and simulate their effects of different kinds of viruses, bacteria and cancers, possibly unearthing new drugs to combat them. It could also aid in areas such as stem cell research, paving the way for doctors to cure paralysis, blindness and other non-life threatening but severe medical issues. 

Interactive education without borders

Education can become much more accessible thanks to AI, especially when it’s combined with other new technologies such as the metaverse. Imagine a kind of virtual classroom that anyone can attend lectures held by some of the smartest minds in human history. 

This is exactly the kind of possibility waiting to be discovered in the ICB Verse, a metaverse world developed by ICB Labs that aims to transform education and make it available to students globally. With NFT-enabled access to its virtual classrooms, ICB Verse reduces the cost of learning considerably, making a world-class, interactive education available to anyone at a time that’s convenient for them. Because it’s the metaverse, the classroom can become almost any kind of setting. Imagine learning about Greek philosophers and mythology amid a backdrop of ancient Athens, surrounded by virtual depictions of powerful Gods like Zeus, Athena and Apollo. 

AI’s role here lies in its ability to create virtual clones of luminaries like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Madame Curie and Leonardo da Vinci, allowing students to interact directly with these personalities and tap into their awe-inspiring knowledge.  

Combating human trafficking

Perhaps surprisingly, AI could also help to put a stop to one of the most horrific crimes against humanity – the sordid business of human trafficking, which is both unbelievably cruel and exploitative and potentially a threat to global security. Human traffickers often scour the web for their next victims, luring them in with advertisements of better-paid employment overseas. 

AI tools and computer vision algorithms can help by scraping images from the websites commonly used by traffickers, and identify those that are suspicious. At the same time, AI can be used to analyze information from government websites to identify possible victims of human trafficking and alert authorities to their plight. This is the goal of Microsoft’s Intelligence Toolkit, which has been made available for free on GitHub for organizations working to prevent such crimes. 

Preventing sexual harassment 

Sexual harassment continues to be a significant problem globally, and AI can provide victims with more efficient means to report incidenst of gender-based violence, sexual abuse and more. For social media, email and messaging platforms can leverage AI to monitor communications for inappropriate, suggestive or abusive content. There are also services that enable victims to share their experiences of sexual harassment, to warn others of any potential risks. 

Employers can also utilize AI to help prevent sexual harassment in the worlplace. AI-powered ools such as Spot, SaferSpace and AI2HR utilize advanced algorithms to gather data from incident reports, workplace communications and employee surveys to identify any patterns of offending and highlight risks, so organizations can take action to address them. 

Improving weather forecasting

Even today, it can be extremely difficult for meteorologists to accurately forecast the weather, especially over the longer term. Doing so is extremely complex, but powerful deep learning frameworks can help to improve forecasting by analyzing vastly more data than humans can. 

For instance, Climate Informatics is an organization that brings together AI and data engineers with environmental scientists, climate change experts and policymakers to try and maker long term predictions around climate change. 

By using cutting-edge data mining techniques and statistical methods powered by AI and machine learning, and by correlating information from satellite images and weather stations with historical climate records, Climate Informatics aims to help researchers understand the past, present and future of our global climate. 

AI is here to stay, so learn how to use it

Although there are justifiable concerns over AI’s potential to eliminate some kinds of jobs and create new security risks, there are reasons to think that the technology will ultimately be a net positive for the world. 

While some jobs may go, AI can also help to create many new kinds of career opportunities, opening the doors to various maintenance and supporting roles, for example. Moreover, it can provide many societal benefits that help to improve the lives of millions of people worldwide. 

Some of the fears raised about AI have surfaced in the past. For instance, at the start of the industrial revolution there was a lot of panic among factory workers who feared they had no future, but ultimately the world changed and many new jobs, including many that previously didn’t exist, were created. 

In any case, the AI genie is out of the bottle and it’s not going away, and so the best thing everyone can do is learn how to use it, taking advantage of the educational opportunities and productivity benefits it provides.