by The future of Artificial Intelligence presents many solutions to everyday problems and solutions that will make it easier for humans to do everyday tasks. If there is a robot that can serve you coffee in the morning then one does not have to turn on the coffee pot in the morning and can rather just sleep in. Self-driving cars present the potential for humans not having to learn how to drive and the possibility of no one ever drunk driving or driving under the influence. Similarly, scientists predict that one day we will reach the point where AI can write a New York Times best-selling book, improving the entertainment industry. AI has the potential to influence every field and help ease the lives of humans, but AI must be developed carefully to ensure safety.
Self-driving cars present the potential for the great ease of mankind not having to be in control of driving everywhere, but also increases privacy risk, and may be prone to accidents. Self-driving cars would make everyday life much easier. Imagine not having to worry about staying alert every time you are on the road or being able to take a nap during your commute to work or school every morning. Self-driving cars potentially have to ability to allow people to do such actions in their car, but it also comes with a greater privacy risk and can be prone to accidents. In order for self-driving cars to work there must be a GPS tracker that is in the car. This GPS tracker can then identify where you travel to most, giving hackers and car companies such as Tesla, the information about where you live and where you go to school or work. Such information may be personal to certain people, but cannot be kept a secret if you wish to drive a self-driving car. Also, if we completely give up our autonomy in driving cars to an automated AI we run the risk of being completely in the hands of the AI programming. We have no control of making safety maneuvers if we see a pedestrian on the road or if we could potentially hit an animal.
AI does not have a conscience as humans do and may not make decisions that a human would. If an AI system was faced with the scenario of hitting a child and killing one person versus putting the lives of the four passengers in the car at risk the AI system may blindly make the calculative decision that killing the one life is better than killing four lives. A human may not make such a decision. If a human were driving the car they may make the decision that it is ethically wrong to kill or severely injure a young child and rather the four adults getting hurt would be ethically more right. AI does not have a conscience that could make such ethical decisions and we are years away from developing an AI that can make such emotional and ethical decisions.
AI has many potentials to be the future of robotics and the computer science industry, but it must be developed carefully and users should recognize the limitations of AI and the privacy issues that it may bring. Just because AI may ease the lives of many people, it does not mean that it should be used universally. Neither should scientists develop AI without further considering the consequences of their actions and what successful development would entail.
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Image 1: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45048264