Artificial Intelligence of the Now: Socially Acceptable or Unacknowledged?

A lot of what is happening now technologically, and in the last ten or so years has seemed to have had a positive impact on society. Currently, many individuals see Artificial Intelligence as having created jobs and alleviating a lot of hard, strenuous labor. As seen so far, AI has been a perpetuator of creating opportunity and not taking opportunity away from the human workforce as so many believe to be the case for the future. Some positive points that are being focused on now are as follows: “Advances in technology may displace certain types of work, but historically they have been a net creator of jobs. We will adapt to these changes by inventing entirely new types of work, and by taking advantage of uniquely human capabilities. Technology will free us from day-to-day drudgery, and allow us to define our relationship with “work” in a more positive and socially beneficial way. Ultimately, we as a society control our own destiny through the choices we make.” (Smith, 2014) For now, experts are focused on the positive impact that can be seen, and the positive relationship AI has had with humans until now as well as possibly for years to come.

    Although positive impacts are being seen, there has been little focus on AI workforce from a social standpoint and what these new technologies are doing to change us Human beings. Only just now have sociologists and those alike have given any attention to AI and its impact on society at large so a social impact has really yet to be seen. This is still very much in its developing stages it seems, but we are starting to see a great shift from the one focus robot to a multitaskable, and self learning intelligence. We are heading to the Singularity phase as Ray Kurzweil, a technological inventor and futuristic predictor, says. the Singularity is “A future period where technological change will be so rapid that its impact so profound that life will be irreversibly transformed” (Transcendent, 2009).  which means that we are in a transition phase. AI is being introduced more frequently and at higher capacities. Currently we are ending the introduction phase of technology, and are now working towards moving into the Singularity.  We are developing and teaching AI to be fully functional on its own like Baxter, the general purpose robot, which learns tasks by watching and mimicking someone do them.

“Baxter is the computer of the 1980’s, and only the beginning...He’s already replaced lower skilled jobs. We’ve already seen how dumber robots than Baxter can replace jobs.” (Grey). So while jobs are being affected and changing, robots and artificial intelligence in general have seemed to have had little effect otherwise, or at least that effect has yet to be seen.

 

Reference:

Grey, CGP. "Humans Need Not Apply." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Smith, Aaron, and Janna Anderson. "AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs." Pew Research Center Internet Science Tech RSS. Pew Research Center, 6 Aug. 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.

Transcendent Man. Dir. Barry Ptolemy. Docurama Films ;, 2009. Film.