Abstract: This was probably the first paper we wrote and we were able to choose our own controversy that was happening in the scientific world. I chose AI because of how its been affecting our lives recently and because its something that was appearing non stop when I first started writing this essay.

Franco Farfan

Megan Skelly

Eng 12003

3/4/23

Are AI really taking over our future?

We have been hearing for so many years already that robots are going to take over the world. Although it seems like that in the movies, the answer is a bit more complicated. The term AI and how dangerous it is, is a very controversial topic right now. Nevertheless, there is much evidence pointing that AI could or could not be a big part of our future. 

One of the biggest fears people have is the thought of robots taking over our jobs. Unfortunately, they would be absolutely right with AI taking our jobs. According to tech article ‘builtin’, “Since 2000, robots and automation systems have slowly phased out many manufacturing jobs — 1.7 million of them” (Thomas). AI have been taking over jobs for decades now due to just having more benefits over human labor. This has been happening already in many factories that used to rely on heavy human labor that just didn’t benefit the owners. Robots taking over their jobs allows for cheaper and faster work that just could not happen with human hands. However, the same article states that the introduction of AI in the workplace allows for millions of more jobs for us. They mention, “It’s predicted that AI will create 97 millions new jobs by 2025” (Thomas). The article goes on to explain that AI will take over 50% of all jobs right now, but there many new jobs will be created due to this rise of technology. There are also many jobs that just can’t be replaced by AI, for the moment, like teachers, writers, lawyers, etc. Overall, the fear of AI taking over our jobs is understandable, but the opportunity of newer and better jobs are being overshadowed by fear mongering. 

However, the introduction of ChatGPT has been a big hit showing anyone with internet access the power of AI. ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that can basically answer anything you ask it with human-like language. This chat however has so many uses that it could start replacing people. An NBC article “These jobs are most likely to be replaced by chatbots like ChatGPT” by Megan Cerullo mentions how the AI is very good at writing and fixing code. An interviewee explains that the AI is likely to take jobs but “it would also help those who program to find mistakes in codes and write code more efficiently”. Even though AI is risking people’s jobs from being taken over, it is also showing that it’s a tool everyone is going to start having to use. This is further explained close to the ending of the article where it is shown that ChatGPT was able to pass a law school exam and able to write all sorts of legal forms and documents. The article ends with a quote demonstrating how much AI is going to change our work life in the future; “The way attorneys work will be dramatically different. If I had to put a stake down around jobs that won’t be there, I think it’s attorneys who don’t adapt to new ways of working over the next decade”.

Moving on, AI has also seemed to have taken over the health care system. There are multiple AI technologies that exist in the medical world, from pure virtual software to physical physical robots that assist surgeons. This type of AI will assist the medical team but not necessarily take over their jobs. According to the ASCPT, artificial intelligence will be able to identify less known symptoms from patients with less-common responses. In other words, doctors are able to use AI to facilitate diagnosing a patient which could in turn save their life. This leads on to a different problem of ‘adaptation’ for our physicians. W.R. Ashby back in the 1950’s coined the term “augmented intelligence”, which is how ‘robots’ will take over our healthcare system. As best said by Langlotz at Stanford, “Radiologists who use AI will replace radiologists who don’t”. Our healthcare system will be filtered out with newer and/or smarter physicians who are able to work with newer technology making working with AI a must if you want to become successful.

Before we take a plunge into how much more AI will take over our future, let’s see how it has taken over our present. The paper titled “ The forthcoming Artificial Intelligence revolution: Its impact on society and firms” by Professor Spyros Makridakis talks about how AI will impact our society in the future and how they can determine those causes by analyzing what has already been predicted for our age. Makridakis refers to a paper written in 1995 about the similar topic they are both writing about. He takes a very interesting quote from the 1995 paper that just speaks volumes to what we are facing now. The paper quotes Say, a famous French economist, exclaiming “Nevertheless no machine will ever be able to perform what even the worst horses can – the services of carrying people and goods through the bustle and throng of a great city”. Makridakis goes on to explain how no one in their wildest dreams could ever think of the type of technology we have at our disposal. In the 1995 paper, the prediction of the widespread use of ‘computers’ would have happened by 2015 and some of the following will be readily available to us; Music, shopping, picture phone and teleconference, online banking, video games, etc. Overall, technology has been advancing quickly and predictably and with the normality of AI all around us in smartphones and self-driving cars, the predictions made for the future of AI are not a reach.

Following the same paper, Makridakis explains the four AI scenarios bound to happen in the future. This is all based on educated guesses and beliefs all explained in a mix of logos and ethos. The first scenario is called ‘The Optimists’ with some experts predicting that there will be a utopian future where humans reach a point of having our brains connected to the cloud and having the same speed and knowledge of a computer. On top of that, robots would be doing all labor leaving all humans to pursue whatever they want. That being the most unrealistic of the four, we move on to ‘The Pessimists’ with Makridakis citing many papers and scientists on why AI will turn out superior to us humans. This scenario describes the computers as being in charge of making all important decisions and humans being forced to work under them due to our flaws. ‘The Pragmatists’ are the few that believe that AI can be controlled and be used to our advantage to take human kind to the next step. This is one of the most believable as this connects to how physicians are currently using AI to give better treatments. This scenario makes you look at AI as a tool rather than as a new type of life being created. Finally there is ‘The Doubters’ where they believe that AI will never become a real threat to humanity, claiming that most predictions were off by a couple decades and artificial intelligence “will not be able to achieve the highest of human ability that of being creative”. Makridakis writes this in a way of making them sound hopeful for humanity but just naive for the us.

With the rise of AI all over the world, it’s hard to imagine a life where artificial intelligence is not part of it. The controversial topic of AI taking over our future is a complicated one but not as far-fetched as most people think. With all the evidence provided, the question of AI taking over is really up to anyone.