Is AI good or bad for society?

Is AI bad? Though there are many benefits to AI, there are also drawbacks. Before deciding whether artificial intelligence is bad, we should explore further. 

Leveraging AI for repetitive tasks may save an organization time and money, but not necessarily jobs. Roles like manufacturing, data entry and retail checkout may be sacrificed to AI as it becomes more sophisticated and ubiquitous. In fact, Goldman Sachs forecasted in March 2023 that AI could impact 300 million full-time jobs globally, according to CBS News. 

Because AI is programmed by humans, some human biases will end up in the code. The training data also be biased. The ramifications of this can ripple through society at a rate that is hard to fathom. That’s why addressing biases is so important, even if they were made in good faith and are unintentional. 

Security risks may represent the biggest drawback for AI. It can impact people on a personal level (such as stealing an identity). It can impact people on an organizational and professional level (such as data theft or ransomware that can shut down operations entirely). It could impact people on a community level if, for example, a bad actor took down an electrical grid in a city or town. It can even impact people on a national level as with the theft of sensitive governmental information. 

Deep fakes are audio and video files that have been altered to look and sound like a specific influential person, such as a political figure or businessperson. In a video file, for example, a U.S. president may appear to say something against his platform or much worse. Videos like this could affect the outcomes of elections while also being difficult to disprove. Similarly, deep fakes could affect businesses and other organizations with negative perceptions, boycotts and other detrimental action.

In the academic sphere, plagiarism represents another liability for AI. In fact, when ChatGPT and other LLMs became widely available, one of the first concerns was plagiarism. With a few easy-to-write prompts, students can access entire essays. Early on, it was nearly impossible to check for plagiarism, because each output — no matter the input — was completely different. Now AI plagiarism checkers help mitigate that problem, but they’re not perfect.

There are many ways to create misinformation with AI, but there are also ways to spot it. Often, it starts with a gut-check. Ask yourself if the message lines up with the person in the video. Check to see if the mouth is synced with the audio. Look at the details of still images closely. Do the hands have five fingers? Do the shadows appear as they should? But remember, AI technology improves daily, so it won’t always be as easy as spotting a three-legged dog.

Like tools to detect plagiarism, there are also tools to check videos for authenticity. These AI checkers may use pixel analysis or other means to find out the truth. 

There are a few ways to protect yourself from AI risks.

Choose your AI apps carefully. Unethical programmers have created harmful AI apps due to the high demand. When downloaded, these apps have the ability to steal your data, so do your research before downloading.

Don’t put any personal information into an AI chatbot or LLM like ChatGPT. Any information you provide is stored on their servers for several days. Hackers are now learning to hack those servers to mine them for personal information, including bank account numbers, contact information and more. Before using an AI program, turn off the “save chat” feature. 

Finally, take common cybersecurity measures, such as creating strong, unique passwords. Put your devices on their highest security settings. Make sure you’re using the most recently updated antivirus software.

Artificial intelligence isn’t just for businesses, schools and governments; we use it in our everyday lives as well. 

One of the most significant and positive uses of AI is in healthcare. From new medicines to diagnostics, AI is already making a serious impact on healthcare, improving patient outcomes and increasing efficiency. Here are a few of the improvements AI is making in healthcare:

• Patient diagnosis: For quick and accurate diagnoses, some healthcare practitioners are using AI to analyze medical images, such as CT scans and MRIs.
• Medical document transcription: Using AI, healthcare providers can transcribe medical notes faster.
• Drug discovery and development: By analyzing huge datasets, AI can identify potential medications and forecast their efficacy, speeding up the process considerably.

AI in transportation goes far beyond self-driving cars. AI-enabled chatbots can help travelers book reservations and do research about their destinations. In-room assistants, similar to Alexa or Google Home, can change the room temperature, answer questions about local attractions or give guests information about operating hours of the hotel restaurants. Some hotels even allow guests to check in via face recognition.

The benefits of AI for logistics impact manufacturers, transportation services and consumers alike. Not only do we want our goods delivered on time, but there are some items — medications and food, for example — that we need to be on time. AI can improve logistics processes in many ways including:

• Route optimization
• Predictive vehicle maintenance
• Warehouse operations
• Demand forecasting
• Inventory management

When we think of AI in customer service, we think of chatbots. Generative AI systems, like LLMs, can now provide tailored answers based on company and user data as well as previous interactions. Natural language processing helps the chatbot better ascertain what customers actually mean rather than providing a set of outputs based on the inputs. 

Just like business and healthcare, AI can have a huge impact on education. In fact, it already is improving life for students and teachers alike.

AI can help instructors by streamlining curriculum planning using evidence-based pedagogical methods without the time-consuming research. Teachers can also use AI to tailor lessons to students with different needs.

Digital textbooks equipped with AI can give each student what they need when they need it. For students who may find a particular subject challenging, the AI textbook can create a more personalized learning program, allowing those students to work at their own pace.

Similar to AI-enabled textbooks, using ChatGPT or other LLMs as AI tutors can also improve comprehension and grades. AI tutors — the LLM of your choice — are available 24/7, and they are often free. Virtual AI tutors also have fewer, if any, knowledge gaps compared to their human counterparts. Just remember to check any information given by AI, as those systems are known to hallucinate (give incorrect information) from time to time. 

Without oversimplifying the issue, the future of AI is uncertain. The technology will continue to advance, and in a manner that is somewhat unpredictable. 

Though we don’t know exactly where AI will go, there are some trends to watch:

• Explainable AI: With this trend, users can see the decision process, allowing them to explain the outputs to stakeholders, which can build trust and transparency.
• Multimodal AI: Multimodal AI produces more vivid experiences by using a larger range of senses — hearing, sight and speech.
• Agentic AI: This type of AI is a system designed to be autonomous. It can make decisions, perform tasks and interact with its environments and people with no direct human action along the way.

As discussed, there are many ways AI can go awry. With so much potential, both good and bad, it’s crucial that developers start to put in guardrails to keep AI safe for everyone.

Transparency and accountability are key to ensuring AI that is safe and ethical. Some AI systems work in a “black box” meaning no one knows exactly how its decisions are made. With such as system, no one can be held accountable, which has potential to cause significant repercussions in terms of safety, legal concerns.

Another concern surrounds intellectual property, which has been debated since ChatGPT’s release. Because most of the training data was scraped from the internet, very few creators were compensated for their intellectual property. Many lawsuits have been filed and the courts have come to some conclusions, but nothing that solves the problem entirely. There is a lot to consider when writing these laws, so it may be a while before we have a solution that is fair to everyone involved.

We know we can use AI in a way that will greatly benefit ourselves, businesses, governments and society. But as a powerful tool, it can also be used for nefarious purposes, such as bad actors stealing information, sowing discontent and perpetrating other illegal activities.

So, is AI good or bad? Even with all the information, it’s still a tough call and one that we have to make as individuals, at least for now.  

Curious to learn more about AI and its applications? Check out University of Phoenix’s Center for Educational and Instructional Research Technology in the University’s College of Doctoral Studies, where research projects, whitepapers,  blogs, and even dissertations may be available to shed light on this cutting-edge topic.

To learn more about how artificial intelligence works, check out the online technology degrees at the University of Phoenix, where you can deepen your understanding of AI in an online learning environment as part of the curriculum:

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science: Develop core skills in programming and networking and gain a deeper understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data.

• Bachelor of Science in Data Science: Gain the fundamental knowledge needed to analyze, manipulate and process data sets using statistical software.

• Master of Science in Data Science: Learn to analyze, design and manage complex and unorganized data sets for businesses – and increase your leadership capabilities.

Ready to take the next step? Request more information today and prepare for your future.