Spielberg’s classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, introduced the public to the concept of Artificial Intelligence and its dilemmas. Today, we are surrounded by AI. From smartphone voice assistants to surveillance cameras and self-driving cars, AI has become an irreplaceable part of our lives. Despite its important role, many people don’t fully understand what artificial intelligence is or the Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence. Do you know what all the fuss is about AI? Don’t worry! Today’s blog will answer those questions and more.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
The Idea of Artificial Intelligence dates back 2700 years. Do you believe that?
Today’s Artificial Intelligence, however, isn’t similar to what was the idea in the Dark Ages. James McCarthy coined the refined and currently acknowledged definition of Artificial Intelligence in 1956, the father of AI. AI is a group of technologies. It helps computers act like humans. These systems can think, learn, and make decisions. AI is not naturally smart. It needs data to work properly. We can broadly categorize today’s Artificial Intelligence services into two types;
Narrow AI vs. General AI: Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence
- Narrow or Weak AI: This type specializes in specific tasks, such as facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, and voice assistance.
- General or Strong AI: This advanced form aims to perform tasks that only humans could do until now. Examples include advanced robots like Sophia, but true general AI remains a concept for the future.
Where is Artificial Intelligence used?
AI has experienced a revolution with models like Midjourney and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.OpenAI reached one million users in just five days. This popularity brings us back to the question: Is AI good or bad?
Industries like healthcare, banking, and automotive now widely use AI. A study suggests a potential 120% increase in AI usage next year. This growth also raises concerns.
People worry about jobs, privacy, and decision-making. Let’s explore both sides to gain clarity.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence
Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence
Experts project that AI will contribute about $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030. There are numerous pros of Artificial Intelligence in our world, but we’ll try to cover the top 5 benefits of Artificial Intelligence.
Never gets tired
Possibly one of the biggest human weaknesses is that we get tired; an average human can’t work more than a couple of hours consistently. On the other hand, your trusted AI system will work almost continually forever.
This is one of the biggest benefits
- They don’t sleep
- Eat food
- Take breaks unless there’s a maintenance check.
This 24/7 availability is a strong argument for why we need Artificial Intelligence.
Example: You can ask ChatGPT questions all day long, but a normal human won’t listen to more than 2.
Minimizes Human Error: Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence
Humans are easily the most skilled beings, but even they commit errors, sometimes elementary ones; however, if people program an AI model properly, it makes very few mistakes, which is a real blessing. The acceptable mean error rate for an AI model is 6.8%, which is almost half compared to a human. But there is one very important consideration: AI Systems depend on human minds for their programming and creation, so they have limitations and flaws
Example: AI-enhanced driving Safety features in cars
Unbiased Results
Even top recruiters may choose different candidates, but AI gives unbiased results based on data. AI systems make predictions based on patterns, not assumptions, which I believe is one of many benefits of Artificial Intelligence, which is why about 56% of corporations in the USA are using AI to perfect business operations.
Humans have biases and differences of opinion, whereas an AI model is trained specifically to negate any external inclination and only act per available dataset and previous examples, which makes it one of the advantages of Artificial Intelligence.
Example: Screening Resumes
Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
AI has brought so many revolutionary changes in the healthcare sector, from early cancer detection using pattern matching to forming personalized treatment techniques for each patient. Artificial Intelligence has made things better for all. In 2021, healthcare units in the US actively used AI tools in 41% of cases, a number that has only gone up since.
AI is also helping streamline Healthcare records for Government associations and helping them make better & more focused healthcare plans for each region, which I believe is one of the many benefits of AI in healthcare.
Example: Breast Cancer Detection and classification using CT-Scan images.
Less Risky Tasks for Humans
Undoubtedly, one of the biggest pros of Artificial Intelligence is its ability to replace or aid in risky tasks. In multiple manufacturing sectors, humans encounter lots of heavy or hazardous machinery and equipment, but AI-powered machines have replaced humans in risky tasks and improved workplace safety.
The paint job is one such hazardous job that has caused breathing and skin issues for factory workers, but ever since we got AI-powered robots, all a human does is click a button, and the car gets a paint coat.
Example: Paint Robots in Volkswagen.
Example: Paint Robots in Volkswagen.
Best Assistant
Did you know ChatGPT’s website gets over 1.6 billion visits each month?
AI chatbots have changed the whole digital game. Now, you can communicate with a bot on an E-commerce store, and it will help you answer your questions instantly based on previous responses, making the process a lot smoother & efficient. AI tools also help you increase work productivity by keeping a constant track of your work routine and finding the times when you are most productive, and then help you route important tasks in those times. This is one of the most pivotal pros of Artificial Intelligence.
Example: Chatbots, Work Productivity Solutions apps.
Excels with Large sets of Data
Almost every government office has a very big room specifically kept to hold files and data, which explains the reason why it takes so long to process things at times. However, unlike humans, AI excels with bulk data and will help you organize and sort such big and ever-growing datasets in the blink of an eye. AI helps process and analyze large datasets much quicker than methods of Old age, I mean the 2000s, and helps us find accurate and suitable results all the time, every time.
Example: Finding patterns for trials of similar precedence, aiding the judicial process.
Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence
A famous saying goes like ‘There’s always a flip side to the coin,’ and it couldn’t have been said any better when it comes to AI. Despite its overpowering benefits, the Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence are also glaringly apparent, and some are as follows.
Threat to Employment: Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence Job Displacement
In recent years, AI has led to significant downsizing in non-technical jobs. Many professions have become redundant because AI can perform their tasks much more quickly and efficiently.
Roles like Research Analyst and Copywriter may soon vanish, highlighting a major disadvantage of Artificial Intelligence. A BBC study estimates that AI could replace around 300 million jobs in the next two decades. While calculators didn’t replace mathematicians, they did make abacuses obsolete. As a result, humans must adapt and evolve their roles alongside AI.
Absence of Creative Ability
One of the biggest cons of AI, as highlighted by its critics, is the lack of Artificial intelligence to produce something original. Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence are restricted to operating within the provided datasets and will mostly merge a couple of things from here and there and produce something incredible, but not creative or original.
Pros and Cons of the Artificial Intelligence Model can produce:
- outstanding music,
- Write great scripts
- Mimic the voice of any Celebrity
But Relevant datasets make all of this possible, and it cannot go beyond that; it cannot think outside the box. AI can paint beautiful digital art, but it will never produce its Mona Lisa.
Lacks Emotional Aspect
Another disadvantage of Artificial Intelligence tools is the fact that they lack a degree of humanness in their predictions. AI will only see through the Facts and figures, and although it can be programmed to locate a few emotional cues, it cannot distinguish complex human emotions.
There are a lot of sectors that require genuine empathy and consideration of human emotions to make predictions and results, but AI’s lack of emotional sensitivity makes it hard for AI to deal with such situations. This is primarily a reason why we’ll always need humans to make critical decisions, because only we can factor in such reasoning.
Privacy and Data Security Concerns
The most significant issue in the modern world is the privacy of personal data; Authorities take big conglomerates to court because of their data collection, data storage, and analysis to benefit themselves, which is also a similar issue in the AI model.
When you require your AI to generate individual plans and predictions, you will be required to provide it with your sensitive data, which, admittedly, exposes you to cyber attacks and leakage of your sensitive data.
Ethical dilemmas: How to Walk the Balancing Act on the Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence Moral Implications
We give AI systems the responsibility to make significant decisions as they become autonomous. This change may become an issue. As an example, when an accident is caused by a completely autonomous vehicle, who is liable: the manufacturer, the driver, or both? On the same note, when an AI model suggests a medical procedure that causes complications, who bears the responsibility? These queries make the everywhere use of AI extremely difficult.
The other ethical issue is that AI is possibly turning humans into lazy and inactive beings. Previously, when a person did not know something, they would read research papers and books. Many people are now using ChatGPT as a source of instant answers and are less curious and critical in their thinking.
Makes Humans too dependent
In the past couple of years, every student, developer, and business professional’s best friend and advisor has been a chatbot, an AI virtual assistant. People now depend heavily on AI to solve college assignments, help us locate and resolve bugs, so it’s impossible to now imagine a world without it.
Chat-GPT received over 10 million queries per day during the first week of its launch. This dependence on AI systems is the new pandemic, and only a handful are talking about it, which is why it’s one of the biggest disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence.
Conclusion
It’s too early to declare AI as a villain or a savior. Its influence on our daily lives is undeniable. As we navigate this landscape, we must remember that the pen or the sword does not wield power; the beholder does. While the pros and cons of Artificial Intelligence are evident, we can mitigate disadvantages through regulation and quality checks to ensure that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
