Artificial Intelligence-Good Until It's Bad

 I remember hearing about artificial intelligence when I was in sixth grade. A high schooler at my school was making a presentation on it and the dangers of it. I remember thinking that it was something that we wouldn’t even have to worry about in our lifetimes, and before I knew it I was playing online games of backgammon against an AI robot, walking into an Amazon Go store, using facial recognition on my

iPhone, and vying for a Tesla. 

What are the dangers of this technology? 

My biggest concern with AI is the singularity event. The singularity event proposes that scientists will create an AI form that surpasses the intellect of human life. This could happen anywhere from 10 to 100 years from now. I think it could happen sooner rather than later. As soon as an organism surpasses our intellect I am afraid that it will be able to make choices of its own, and they might not be good ones. This could endanger national security, they could be involved in wars, and more. As a society, we are made to innovate. Nothing is ever good enough, we have to be better, smarter, and more powerful than the next country. The issue with AI comes in when you have countries that are enemies to each other possibly weaponizing their AI against each other in the future. I hope that AI never comes to be weaponized or used to harm people, but it is a big fear for many.

But AI is already very present in society. 

Actually, AI is already completely ingrained within our society. Everything from Siri to Netflix changing its recommendations to meet our likes are all different types of artificial intelligence. The change has already begun.

My experience with AI is limited compared to some, but extremely expensive compared to people in countries with less technology access. 

My Experience and AI:

I was flying to New York City with my dad and at the airport, he wanted to show me how he played backgammon. He worked on his computer and showed me his app that he played with.

The premise of it was that he was playing against an AI robot, one that would always make the correct moves. I have used Siri for years, I am using her right now to type this essay out on my phone. I probably use her anywhere from 10 to 20 times a day, without even realizing it. I’ve had surgeries and the machines and doctors have used AI before to plan out the surgeries. While many people think that AI is bad and scary, and I am afraid of the repercussions of super intelligence, I am not afraid of the general, likable, and useful AI like Siri and Teslas. 

I think there’s a huge distinction between AI that is task-oriented and free-thinking AI.